Major: Forest Ecology and Soils, Agroforestry

M.S. 1993, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Major: Tree Physiology, Reforestation

B.A.  1986, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

Major: Economics, International Relations

Peace Corps Recruiter, 1993 - 1994, University of Florida, Gainesville.

Teaching Assistant, 1992 & 1993, Tropical Forestry & Forest Operations, University of Florida.

Trainer, Gender Analysis short courses, 1992 - 1994, Tropical Conservation & Development and Managing Environment & Resources  with a Gender Emphasis (MERGE), Gainesville and  Rio Branco, Brazil.

Trainer,  1992 - 1993, Farming Systems Research/Extension and Agroforestry short courses, International Training Division, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

Trainer, 1992, Analysis and Design of On-Farm Research, University of Florida's International Training Division and the Center for Aridoculture, Settat, Morocco.

Research Assistant, 1990-1993, Florida's Forest Stewardship Program, School of Forest Resources & Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville.

Forestry/Agroforestry Extension Agent, 1988 - 1989, U.S. Peace Corps, Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO), Guinean Forest Service, Guinea, West Africa.

Forestry/Agroforestry Extension Agent, 1986 - 1988, U.S. Peace Corps, Beninese Ministry of Rural Development and Forest Service, Benin, West Africa.

Ph.D. research conducted in collaboration with two Brazilian non-governmental organizations, to examine the extent to which an agroforestry system, widely adopted by resource-poor farmers and comprised of native forest species, is ecologically sustainable without the use of soil amendments.  The study was conducted on eight farms in the western Brazilian Amazon, using a participatory approach that encouraged farmer involvement throughout the investigative process.  Biological studies included (1) analysis of agroforest and adjacent forest soils to determine how soils have changed since conversion of forest to agroforest, (2) a root ingrowth bioassay to assess nutrient limitations to productivity and inter-specific plant  competition in the system, (3) nutrient budget construction to compare the cycling and stores of C, N, and P in the agroforestry system to those in other Amazonian land-uses and native forest.  Household interviews and focus group discussions were also held to (1) determine how agroforest management practices affect nutrient dynamics, and (2) to identify socio-economic and technical constraints to modification of agroforest management to sustain and enhance productivity.

Tree physiology and reforestation, 1990 - 1992, University of Florida, School of Forest Resources & Conservation, Gainesville, FL.

In response to a seedling survival problem identified by the Southeastern U.S. forest nursery industry, examined the effects of two widely-used cultural practices on seedling water relations, vigor, mechanical stress, and survival from the time of harvesting seedlings from nursery beds to two years following outplanting.

1995 Inter-American Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship ($23,000)

1995 National Security Education Program Fellowship ($15,800)

1993-1995 Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowship - Brazilian Portuguese  ($22,000)

1994 Tropical Conservation & Development Field Study (Univ. Fl)($2,500)

1993 Agricultural Women's Scholarship (Univ. Fl)($500)

1990-1993 USDA Forest Stewardship Program Research Assistantship (Univ. Fl)($29,000)

McGrath, D.A. and M.L. Duryea.  1994.  Initial moisture stress, budbreak and two-year field performance of three morphological grades of slash pine seedlings.  New Forests 8: 335-350.

Duryea, M., Hubbard, W., McGrath, D., and C. Marcus.  1992.  Florida's Forest Stewardship Program: An Opportunity to Manage Your Land for Now and the Future.  Gainesville, FL: Florida Cooperative Extension Service.

McGrath, Deborah, Mary Duryea, Nicholas Comerford and Lucia Hall. 1998.  Phosphorus and nitrogen cycling eight years after Amazonian primary forest conversion to agroforests.  Ecological Society of America 83rd Annual Meeting 2-6 August 1998, Baltimore, Maryland.  

McGrath, Deborah, Mary Duryea, Lucia Hall.  1997.  Phosphorus and fine root dynamics in western Amazonian agroforest and native forest ecosystems.  Supplement to the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America Volume 78, No. 4, October 1997.  Ecological Society of America 82nd Annual Meeting 10-14 August 1997, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

McGrath, D.  1996.  Exportação de Fósforo e Dinâmica das Raízes Finas em um Sistema Agroflorestal na Amazônia - O Caso do Projeto RECA.  Seminar given to the Department of Soils of the Federal University of Viçosa,, Minas Gerais, Brazil.  October 22, 1996.

McGrath, D.  1996.  A Ciclagem dos Nutrients nas Sistemas Agroflorestais: O Caso do RECA. Seminar given to EMBRAPA (Brazilian Enterprise for Agronomic Research), Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil.  September 22, 1996.

McGrath, D.A., M.L. Duryea, and T.L. White.  1992.  Field- and shed-packed slash pine nursery seedlings:   Effects on survival and growth.  Proceedings of the southern Forest Nursery Association, July 20-23, 1992.  Pine Mountain, Georgia.