Shoals Marine Lab

file:///Users/rebeccaatkins/Dropbox/Chapter%203/Kat_Data/Analysis_Data/Shoals_Plot.html

Biomimetic Temperature Sensors

Dissertation Research 

As a PhD student at the University of Georgia, I continued working in salt marshes to answer a growing number of research questions. 

I established monitoring plots within nine sites along the southeastern and mid Atlantic US coast (Florida - Delaware). This effort informed my understanding of variability existing within snail populations and snail-plant interactions across latitudes.

I have also partnered with additional researchers to study snail distributions across spatial scales (e.g. within and among marsh sites) and at additional sites along the Georgia Coast. 

Finally, I expanded my research to explore the top-down effects of additional trophic levels (e.g. nekton) on snail population characteristics and the physiological mechanisms underlying variability in snail-plant interactions (e.g. metabolic traits). 

The first paper from my dissertation was published in The Biological Bulletin in 2022. 

Undergraduate Research 

​Salt Marshes: 

The salt marshes of the southeastern US comprise a dynamic and highly productive landscape. These systems, while extensively explored, still inspire researchers from around the world investigating topics ranging from biogeochemistry to trophic cascades. 

In 2012, I conducted research on Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, which resulted in a peer-reviewed paper published in Oikos. This research was made possible by NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, and paved the way to the work I completed as a PhD student. 

Rocky Shores: 

In the summer of 2013, I worked with Dr. John Griffin at Swansea University in Wales. While in his lab, ​I began to explore rock pools along the rocky intertidal. These pools contain countless species of marine macroalgae, gastropods, crustaceans and fish. Initially, I hope to link the physical factors within these rock pools to unique algal community assemblages. 

Maine: 

As a summer intern at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) in 2014, I worked with the Casco Bay Aquatic System Survey (CBASS) program. While this program broadly monitors several Casco Bay habitats (from the Presumpscot River to the open ocean) using a suite of sampling techniques (e.g., seining, acoustic monitoring, jigging), I primarily focused on seining 12 sites within the estuary. Using the initial data from this summer, I began to explore multivariate statistics as a way to compare community assemblages across space and time. 

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