Jordan T Jatko, M.S.
Doctoral Student - Dr. McManamay

I am researching the effects of urbanization on watershed health and monitoring techniques used to assign water quality standards (WQS). In a collaboration of Baylor professors, we have developed new modeling techniques for nutrient contamination and benthic macroinvertebrate species richness in under-monitored rural streams. I have collaborated with Baylor's Computer Science department to assist in autonomous monitoring technology that identifies and quantifies invasive zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) veligers sampled from Austin, TX reservoirs. That same technology is now being applied to examine behavioral endpoints in veligers in a toxicological study. I was part of a collaboration with the U.S. National Park Services that conducted economic and infrastructural surveys following the June 2022 flooding of Yellowstone National Park. The McManamay Lab went back to YNP to conduct a follow-up survey of damage to natural resources in the park in August 2023. I am also working in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the use of surrogate contaminant concentrations to predict watershed health and developing a restoration synthesis to quantify restoration efforts using species richness.
My interest is in the environment and how humans interact with it. I have experience in toxicology and biochemical techniques (qPCR, NGS, Western Blot, immunohistochemistry, etc), field study design and sampling techniques, statistical analysis and machine learning using the R programming language, benthic macroinvertebrate identification, watershed health and management, biogeochemistry, and more.
If you would like to know more about me, please email!
Education
B.S. – Physiology – Middle Tennessee State University
B.A. – German Language and Literature – Middle Tennessee State University
M.S. – Environmental Toxicology – Clemson University
Thesis – “Effects of a 5-week 100ppb Arsenic Exposure in Drinking Water on Mouse Intestinal Epithelium”