Research

Our research in the Community Ecologhy Laboratory at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science focuses on the field of benthic ecology, with a concentration in the dynamics of soft-sediment estuaries and coastal benthic habitats. Our goal is to address the important factors influencing benthic community structure and, in turn, the effects that the benthic community has on upper trophic levels.

Source-Sink Dynamics in Marine Systems

We use extensive population data and a population model with dispersal to test hypotheses concerning survival, growth, reproduction, and dispersal between subpopulations in putative source and sink habitats for the Baltic clam Macoma balthica.

Spatial Dynamics and the Protection of Critical Habitats for the Blue Crab

Our role in this multi-investigator project is to evaluate the relative roles of food and refuge in determining the value of essential habitats to the distribution and abundance of blue crabs in nursery habitats and dispersal corridors.

Impacts of Low Dissolved Oxygen on Food-Web Dynamics in Benthic Communities of Chesapeake Bay

Program measures faunal responses to differing levels of dissolved oxygen in the York and Patuxent rivers of Chesapeake Bay.

Predator-prey dynamics and evolutionary defense tactics for marine bivalves

Experiments test habitat-specific and density-dependent mortality for subtidal, soft-bottom, deep-burrowing prey, thereby enabling development of a conceptual model for marine benthos.