[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 36 (Thursday, March 6, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONGRATULATIONS KIM HEIMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 5, 2003

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Kim Heiman, 
winner of the 2003 Walter B. Jones NOAA Excellence Award in the 
Category of Excellence in Coastal and Marine Graduate Study. Her study 
of marine ecology and in particular the spread of invasive species has 
brought her well-deserved acclaim and promises to answer many 
scientific questions about the physical and biological changes invasive 
species make on marine communities.
  Born in Iowa, Miss Heiman has lived in a variety of locations 
including Colorado and Japan. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree 
in 2000 from New College in Florida. Currently she is a third year 
Ph.D. student in Ecology and Evolution at Stanford University and works 
out of Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California.
  Increasing numbers of foreign species in the nation's harbors and 
estuaries can have detrimental effects on native habitats. Miss Heiman 
analyzes the spread of a marine tubeworm discovered as an invasive 
species in California's Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research 
Reserve in 1994. This tubeworm species builds large, hard reefs on the 
muddy ocean floor, thereby creating three-dimensional structures. She 
examines these new structures to determine if they result in more 
habitats where other invasive species can live, and her preliminary 
results show that the worm reefs have more invasive species compared to 
other substrates in Elkhorn Slough. Miss Heiman also studies whether 
the spread of other invasive species correlates with the spread of worm 
reefs, and this appears to be the case in Elkhorn Slough. The 
importance of her work rests on the application of her results by 
coastal ecosystem managers struggling to fight a continued spread of 
invasive species. Miss Heiman's results from Elkhorn Slough thus far 
suggest that the spread of invasive species may be mediated by the 
removal of hard substrates.
  Through basic ecological research, Miss Heiman continues to develop 
conclusions that could help curtail the spread of invasive species and 
possibly restore our nation's seaports and harbors. On behalf of this 
House, I commend Kim Heiman on her excellent graduate research in the 
Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve and her strong 
interest in helping answer the difficult problems that ecosystem 
managers face everyday.

                          ____________________