Biomimetic Temperature Sensors
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Shoals Marine Lab:

While teaching at Shoals Marine lab, I am also developing a monitoring program to record high resolution intertidal tide pool temperatures. An example of the pilot data being collected to inform this work can be seen in the figure on the right. Characterizing variation in the thermal profile of these intertidal environments will inform our understanding of temporal and spatial patterns in biodiversity and species interactions. This data will also serve as foundational information to motivate undergraduate learning and research. 

Sapelo Island: 

​Using custom-made biomimetic temperature loggers from Electric Blue, I have installed an array of sensors to record temperatures across marsh species (Littoraria and Geukensia, and Crassostrea), elevation (i.e. high marsh to channel bank), and microhabitats (e.g., vegetated and unvegetated). These sensors will characterize the temperatures experienced by organisms across the marsh platform over a span of years, allowing us to incorporate biologically relevant temperatures into our understanding of organismal physiology. 

Dissertation Research 
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Throughout my PhD at the University of Georgia, I continued working in salt marshes. Using a combination of manipulative field and lab experiments, field surveys, and museum collections, I explored patterns in population size structure and distribution, consumer-resources interactions, and physiological traits.

The cornerstone of this work was establishing multi-year monitoring plots within nine sites along the southeastern and mid Atlantic US coast (Florida - Delaware). This effort informed my understanding of variability in snail populations and snail-plant interactions within and across latitudes. It also served as a touchpoint with seven of NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs), two Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Programs, two Nature Conservancy sites, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and multiple state agencies.

In collaboration with several undergraduate research mentees, I tied this variation in snail-plant population distributions and characteristics to underlying physiological traits, taking into account the effects of both consumer body size and environmental temperature. 

Finally, in collaboration with a masters student, 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 
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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. 

Gulf of 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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