Melissa Turner, M.Sc.

Vice President, Senior Environmental Scientist

Qualifications

Melissa Turner currently manages water quality projects including sampling design, project development and report writing. Ms. Turner's background includes a variety of field and laboratory experience including water, soil, invertebrate and fish sampling, snorkeling surveys to assess fish populations, various laboratory analysis including NMR, HPLC, GC and RT-PCR. Ms. Turner has managed water quality projects for the California Department of Transportation, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and agricultural coalitions.

Since 2004, Ms. Turner is one of the first individuals to utilize and maintain Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program Comparable Database and has been working with the SWAMP Database Management Team to further develop data management tools. She has worked with the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP) and grant-funded entities to develop and manage databases to meet SWAMP comparable requirements and has been responsible for the quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) evaluations of laboratory data. While working for UC Davis (2000-2008), Ms. Turner helped develop the UC Davis Data Center that currently works with the ILRP to move water quality data to the California Environmental Data Exchange Network (CEDEN).

Ms. Turner has written several Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs), Watershed Evaluation Reports (WERs), and Monitoring and Reporting Program Plans (MRPP). She has worked extensively with laboratories to ensure proper quality control assessing precision, accuracy and completeness and conducted training with laboratories regarding SWAMP comparable protocols and templates.

Professional Profile

Master of Science in Animal Biology. University of California, Davis. Lipid profiles of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) exposed to two different temperature regimes during egg development and reared under similar conditions post hatch. Degree conferred June 2008.

Bachelor of Science in Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology with an emphasis in wildlife conservation. University of California, Davis. Degree conferred September 2000.

Lincoln University, New Zealand (1999). Principal Studies in Ecology, Forestry, and Mammalian Physiology.

Publications and Presentations

  • Turner, M.A., M.R. Viant, S.J. Teh, and M.L. Johnson. 2007. Developmental rates, structural asymmetry, and metabolic fingerprints of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) eggs incubated at two temperatures. Fish Physiol Biochem 33: 59-72.
  • Johnson, M.L., M. Turner, S. Teh, and M. Viant. NMR analysis of elevated temperature analysis on O. mykiss eggs. Presented at the Fourth Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry World Congress. Portland, Oregon. 2004.
  • Steinmetz, J, M. Johnson, R. Bush, H. Calanchini, M. Turner, and J. Viers. Avian predation in the Navarro River watershed, California: Potential impacts on salmonids. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Portland, Oregon. 2004.
  • Turner, M., J. Viers, H. Calanchini, R. Bush, and M.L. Johnson. Steelhead growth, developmental stability and the environment: early life history connections and conservation implications. Presented at the World Fisheries Conference. Vancouver, B.C. 2004.
  • Turner, M., D. Huggins, and M.L. Johnson. Assessment of asymmetry in steelhead trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, from a northern California watershed and its potential relationship to environmental stressors. Presented at the American Fisheries and Conservation Biology Conference. Tahoe, California. 2002.