Research Interests:

Madilyn Fletcher is currently Director of the School of the Environment (SoE) at the University of South Carolina. The SoE is a multi-disciplinary unit in the College of Arts and Sciences that fosters the development of research and education programs addressing complex environmental problems and issues that encompass the range from natural habitats to human society development. She was also Director of the Baruch Institute from 1996 to 2006. In her role of Director of the SoE, Madilyn Fletcher has a strong interest in regional partnering and the development of initiatives that coordinate strong science with real-world applications and needs. She is Principal Investigator for the Carolinas Coastal Ocean Observing System (Caro-COOPS), a new initiative with partners North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Caro-COOPS is currently being implemented and comprises a mooring array off of the Carolinas' coast, which is designed to integrate real-time monitoring of hydrologic and meteorological conditions with state-of-the-art computer models to characterize and predict complex coupled air-land-sea processes. The USC portion of this collaborative project is focused on information management and integration.

As an individual investigator and microbiologist, Madilyn Fletcher's research program has focused on aspects of bacterial attachment to solid surfaces, physiological activity of attached bacteria, and molecular characterization of bacterial communities. All solid surfaces in natural environments are colonized by bacteria, as they attach to such surfaces and subsequently grow and proliferate. This bacterial colonization of surfaces and the formation of bacterial “biofilms" have serious implications in human, animal, and plant health, in industrial processes, and in ecological processes. In order to control or prevent undesirable biofilms, it is necessary to understand the physical, chemical, and biological factors that are involved in bacterial attachment to surfaces.

Selected Publications:

M.F. DeFlaun, Oppenheimer, S.R., C.C. Condee, and M. Fletcher. 1999. Alterations in adhesion, transport, and membrane polymers in an adhesion-deficient pseudomonad. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65: 759-765.

Van Schie, P.M. and M. Fletcher. 1999. Adhesion of biodegradative anaerobic bacteria to solid surfaces. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 65:5082-5088.

Fletcher, M. and P. Noble. 2000. Molecular approaches for characterizing microbial community structure in estuaries. In: Microbial Biosystems: New Frontiers: Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, Halifax, August 1998, pp. 113-118.

Fredrickson, J.K. and M. Fletcher (eds.) 2001. Subsurface Microbiology. John Wiley, New York.

Fletcher, M. and E.M. Murphy. 2001. Transport of bacteria in subsurface systems. In: J.K. Fredrickson & M. Fletcher (eds.), Subsurface Microbiology. John Wiley, New York, pp. 39-68.

S.E. Silliman, R. Dunlap, M. Fletcher, and M.A. Schneegurt. 2002. Bacterial transport in heterogeneous porous media: observations from laboratory experiments. Water Resources Research 37: 2699-2707.

Noble, P.A., R.G. Tymowski, M. Fletcher, J.T. Morris, A.J. Lewitus. 2003. Contrasting patterns of phytoplankton community pigment composition in two salt marsh estuaries in southeastern United States. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:4129-4143.

D.E. Porter, T. Small, D. White, M. Fletcher, A. Norman, D. Swain, J. Friedmann. 2004. Data management in support of environmental monitoring, research and coastal management. J. Coastal Res. 45:9-16.

The Carolinas Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction System (Caro-COOPS): A User-Driven System. Madilyn Fletcher, Dwayne E. Porter, Braxton Davis, Leonard J. Pietrafesa, Earle Buckley, Lian Xie. 2005.Proceedings of “Oceans 2005 MTS/IEEE”, Washington DC, September 18-23, 2005

M. Fletcher, D.Porter, L. Leonard, M. Moss, M. Durako, J. Dorton, L.J. Pietrafesa, E. Buckley, L. Xie. 2006. Adaptive integration of sub-regional coastal ocean observing systems: a case study of the coastal ocean research and monitoring program (CORMP) and the Carolinas Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction System (Caro-COOPS). Proceedings of “Oceans 2006 MTS/IEEE”, Boston, MA, September 18-21, 2006

M. Fletcher, D. Porter, J. Cothran, H. Seim. 2006. Information management in the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System: A regional approach. Proceedings of “Oceans 2006 MTS/IEEE”, Boston, MA, September 18-21, 2006

H.E. Seim, F.W. Werner, J.R. Nelson, L. Spence, M. Fletcher, C.N.K. Mooers, R.H. Weisberg. 2006. Progress of SEACOOS as a prototype U.S. regional coastal ocean observing system. Proceedings of US/EU - Baltic International Symposium May23-25, 2006 Klapeda, Lithuania.

W. Johnson, A.J. Lewitus, and M. Fletcher. In press. Linking bacterioplankton community structures to environmental state variables and phytoplankton assemblages in two South Carolina salt marsh estuaries. Aquatic Microb. Ecol.