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Collaborative Science for Estuaries Webinar Series

Join us for monthly webinars featuring project teams supported by the NERRS Science Collaborative. Speakers share their unique approaches to addressing current coastal and estuarine management issues. Learn about new methods to integrate technical experts and users of project outputs into the research process, and how their research results and products might inform your work.

Be sure to check back periodically for session recordings and other relevant products, or sign up (Mailing List | RSS) to receive notifications about new resources and upcoming webinars.

Upcoming Webinars

Fri 6/20/2025, 2:30 - 3:30pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Laura Farwell, Syverine Bentz, and Roger Fuller
Direct link to this webinar »

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Coastal wetlands across the National Estuarine Research Reserve System provide a variety of essential habitats for migratory and threatened/endangered birds throughout the Pacific region. They are used by millions of birds each year to breed, rest, refuel, and overwinter. Human communities also value these areas for subsistence, cultural, commercial, and recreational activities. Despite the benefits they provide, estuarine habitats are being lost at accelerating rates.

To address this need, a one-year catalyst project connected geographically distinct reserves in the Pacific/Western United States with shared migratory bird species and a common interest in elevating the role of Indigenous Knowledge and management practices in coastal conservation. The project – whose team included five reserves, their local management and cultural partners, and Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture – explored applications and built on existing frameworks for weaving together conventional science and Indigenous Knowledge, research, and cultural values to enhance stewardship of estuarine habitats and coastal watersheds. In this webinar, project team members will share key workshop takeaways, project outcomes and ripple effects, and future plans to continue this work. 

Speakers:

laura farwell

Laura Farwell, Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture

Laura Farwell is the Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Science Coordinator for Pacific Birds. As a wildlife and landscape ecologist, her work focuses on region-wide planning, partnership development, and knowledge transfer to support effective and sustainable habitat conservation. As the Collaborative Lead on this project, Laura was responsible for engaging users by helping to develop and manage a process that ensured iteration with collaborators, including mechanisms for being adaptive and responsive to their input. 

syverine bentz

Syverine Bentz, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Syverine Bentz is the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at Kachemak Bay NERR in Alaska. Her work focuses on facilitating knowledge sharing and maintaining reciprocal relationships with Alaskan communities, local experts, agencies, and colleagues nationwide to help shape reserve priorities and connect resources to decision-makers. As a project team member, Syverine supported on-the-ground liaising with reserve staff and Indigenous community partners, and assisted the project team with enhancing opportunities for co-learning and co-development of methods, strategies, goals, and outcomes adaptable to local place, people, climate, resources, and needs.

roger fuller

Roger Fuller, Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve 

Roger Fuller is the Natural Resource Coordinator at Padilla Bay NERR in Washington. He is a landscape ecologist with expertise in estuarine ecosystems, restoration ecology, climate change impacts and adaptation, and development of decision-support tools. As a project Team Member, he supported on-the-ground liaising with reserve staff and Indigenous community partners, and assisted the project team with enhancing opportunities for co-learning and co-development of methods, strategies, goals, and outcomes adaptable to local place, people, climate, resources, and needs.

Wed 7/23/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Jessie Jarvis, Stephanie Kamel, and Erin Shields
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In recent years, rising summer temperatures have caused large-scale diebacks of eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows in parts of the lower Chesapeake Bay, shifting these once-stable habitats toward lower-density, ephemeral states. These losses threaten the vital ecosystem services that eelgrass provides, from supporting fisheries to stabilizing shorelines. With climate change accelerating, coastal managers and restoration practitioners increasingly recognize that long-term eelgrass restoration success must account for the species’ resilience to thermal stress. However, critical knowledge gaps remain about which eelgrass populations may be best suited for future restoration under warming conditions.

To help fill these gaps, this project compared eelgrass populations in Virginia and North Carolina to identify traits and genetic markers associated with thermal resilience. The team conducted genomic analyses and reciprocal transplant experiments to evaluate how different populations respond to heat stress and to test which seed sources might perform better under future climate scenarios. In this webinar, project collaborators will share key findings from this work and introduce several practical products developed through the project, including an eelgrass restoration decision-making framework, a standard operating procedure (SOP) for seed-based restoration, and guidance for integrating genomic data into management decisions.

Speakers:

jessie jarvis

Jessie Jarvis, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Jessie C. Jarvis is a Professor of Biology and Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research examines how environmental stressors shape seagrass resilience, life history strategies, and restoration outcomes across spatial and temporal scales, using an integrative approach that combines field experiments, remote sensing, and ecological modeling. In this project, Jessie coordinated the collaborative team and contributed to the design and interpretation of genomic and experimental analyses aimed at enhancing eelgrass resiliency under climate change.

stephanie kamel

Stephanie Kamel, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Stephanie J. Kamel is a Professor of Biology and Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research focuses on marine molecular ecology, with expertise in population genetics, gene flow, and adaptation in marine species. For this project, Stephanie led the genomic analyses, using advanced genetic tools to identify adaptive traits linked to thermal resilience in eelgrass populations.

erin shields

Erin Shields, Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia

Erin C. Shields is a Research Scientist for the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia, based at William & Mary’s Batten School of Coastal & Marine Science & Virginia Institute of Marine Science. She has extensive experience in long-term seagrass monitoring, field-based restoration, and applied research to support habitat management. In this project, Erin served as the Technical Lead, overseeing field components and collaborating closely with partners to translate scientific findings into restoration practice.

Past Webinars

Thu 6/5/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Bill McDowell, Lynn Vaccaro, and Kalle Matso
Direct link to webinar »

The Eelgrass Resilience Project was a three-year collaborative research effort designed to bridge science and management and address eelgrass habitat loss in the Great Bay Estuary, NH. The estuary is currently classified as nitrogen impaired, primarily due to significant declines in eelgrass (Zostera marina). Despite more than a decade of discussion, uncertainty remains about the factors affecting eelgrass health and the role of nitrogen reduction—creating challenges for effective action.

This project brought together hydrodynamics, biogeochemistry, and ecology to explore how factors such as water residence time, nitrogen loading, in-situ nitrogen processing, sediment dynamics, and light availability influence eelgrass resilience. The team assessed spatial trends across the estuary and conducted a cutting-edge experiment to measure nitrogen processing along a flow path through an eelgrass meadow. In this webinar, the team presents their scientific methods, key findings, and project deliverables. They also share insights from working with a Project Advisory Committee that connected the team with municipal and state decision-makers, as well as national experts who provided real-time peer feedback throughout the project.

Speakers:

bill mcdowell

Bill McDowell, University of New Hampshire

Bill is an ecosystem scientist and recently retired professor in UNH’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. He studies water quality trends and biogeochemical cycles in streams, forests and watersheds, with a special focus on how people have impacted nitrogen cycling. He leads long term research programs in the Lamprey River in NH as well as in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. As project lead, Bill provided overall scientific leadership and helped the team apply an ecosystem science perspective to understand how water quality and aquatic plants interact to protect an important habitat.

lynn vaccaro

Lynn Vaccaro, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Lynn is the Training and Engagement Coordinator at the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in New Hampshire. She has a background in both education and ecological research and experience working with researchers, decision makers and local communities. Just before coming to GBNERR, Lynn was a collaborative research manager for the NERRS Science Collaborative. For this project, Lynn served as a co-collaborative lead alongside Cory Riley.

kalle matso

Kalle Matso, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership

As director of the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership, Kalle works on a range of issues across the NH coastal zone and watershed. He leads the development of the influential State of the Estuary Report and fosters multi-sector collaborations with a special focus on eelgrass and water quality. For this project, he helped design the collaborative process, ensured the team stayed relevant to ongoing policy discussions, and worked closely with a small group of external advisors to facilitate a real time peer review process.

Mon 5/19/2025, 2 - 3pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Chris Janousek, Jenni Schmitt, and Katrina Poppe
Direct link to webinar »

Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on tidal wetland restoration over the past several decades but there is still limited information on the long-term ecological outcomes of these efforts. To address this, a collaborative research project worked with four west coast NERRS and regional partners to assess marsh elevation capital, vegetation communities, and carbon sequestration in 16 decades-old restoration sites and paired reference marshes in California, Oregon, and Washington. By investigating how restoration has affected key wetland attributes at some of the oldest restoration sites along the west coast, this project brings actionable information to restoration practitioners and others planning for, designing, and quantifying benefits of new tidal wetland restoration projects.

In this webinar, the project team discusses their results, the implications of their findings for future restoration implementation and monitoring, and next steps. 

Speakers:

chris janousek

Chris Janousek, Oregon State University

Chris Janousek is a research professor at Oregon State University where he works on blue carbon, tidal wetland restoration, and plant and algal ecology along the Pacific coast. He is also co-lead of the Pacific Northwest Blue Carbon Working Group. He was lead investigator for this project working with the team to plan, implement, analyze and share project data.

jenni schmitt

Jenni Schmitt, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

Jenni Schmitt has been the Watershed Monitoring Coordinator at the South Slough NERR in Oregon for the past 12 years and leads planning and implementation of wetlands-related research and monitoring projects. Jenni served as the co-collaborative lead on this project, coordinating many aspects of end user engagement. She was also on the technical advisory team, contributing to data collection and product development.

katrina poppe

Katrina Poppe, Western Washington University

Katrina Poppe is a Research Associate at Western Washington University and a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia. She studies sediment, vegetation, and carbon dynamics in tidal wetlands in relation to climate change and land management. For this project Katrina has focused on the accretion and blue carbon research components.

Tue 4/15/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Robert Dunn, Liam Batchelder, Joshua Stone, and Graham Wagner
Direct link to webinar »

Estuaries are complex seascapes encompassing multiple habitat types that support critical nursery functions for shrimp and other commercially-harvested species. Shrimp reside in estuaries during multiple life-stages and, because shrimp life history occurs on an annual scale, populations are sensitive to changes in environmental conditions and available habitat. Commercial shrimp landings have been variable over the past two decades, and the effects of environmental factors on shrimp abundance remain unclear. There is therefore a need to better understand changes in shrimp populations in response to environmental variability due to changing climate conditions, weather events, and habitat modifications.

In this webinar, the Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative team – which spans universities, fishery management agencies, fisheries extension offices, and NERR sites – presents results from their project, which used a multi-faceted research framework to better understand the importance of different estuarine habitat types and variable environmental conditions on shrimp populations. Learn more about the team’s approach, which utilized ongoing, long-term biological surveys within estuaries across South Carolina and Georgia, new data collection in the field and lab, and interviews with shrimp industry end-users to better understand the effects of varying environmental conditions on shrimp population dynamics and the associated shrimp fishery. 

Speakers:

robert dunn

Robert Dunn, Ecological Dynamics LLC

Robert Dunn spent 5 years as the Research Coordinator at the North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR at the Baruch Marine Field Lab at the University of South Carolina. He is a marine ecologist with experience working on numerous species and across varied habitats globally. Dunn has participated in or led five different NSC-funded projects since 2020. Through those projects, he gained experience with the collaborative science process, which he now applies through his environmental consulting firm.

liam batchelder

Liam Batchelder, University of South Carolina

Liam Batchelder is a PhD Candidate at the University of South Carolina studying communities of estuarine fishes and crustaceans. Liam led the field sampling efforts for the Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative during which we collected shrimp, their prey, and their predators from three estuaries across the southeastern United States. Each estuary which differs in environmental conditions, habitat availability, and anthropogenic influence, provides an opportunity for understanding what factors contribute to variability in shrimp populations. 

Joshua Stone

Joshua Stone, University of South Carolina

Joshua Stone is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and his lab studies the impacts of environmental change on zooplankton ecology and estuarine food webs. Josh is the Technical Lead for the Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative, and helps oversee data collection and analysis. His direct research role was to analyze the very early life stages of shrimp (postlarval) and their responses to environmental variability.

graham wagner

Graham Wagner, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Graham Wagner is a wildlife biologist with the Shellfish Research Section at SCDNR. His work focuses on research and monitoring of South Carolina’s shrimps, crabs, crayfishes, and horseshoe crabs, both at the population level and at the organismal level. Through the Lowcountry Shrimp Collaborative, Graham investigated several long-term fisheries independent monitoring datasets that collect data on different life stages of white shrimp in South Carolina and Georgia. Using these data, Graham identified habitat- and season-specific shifts in the sizes of white shrimp and water temperatures, demonstrating the long-term impacts of shifting climate on penaeid shrimp.

Tue 4/1/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Danielle Ogurcak, Digna Rueda-Roa, Sara Mason, Brita Jessen, and Marissa Figueroa
Direct link to webinar »

The Mangrove Coast Collaborative (MCC) project (2020 – 2024) began in the aftermath of 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria. Jobos Bay and Rookery Bay NERRs jointly recognized the need to understand and enhance the resilience of their mangrove ecosystems and the surrounding communities in southeast Puerto Rico and southwest Florida, respectively. Through a multi-disciplinary approach spanning four research themes – time-series mapping, ecosystem assessment, ecosystem services modeling, and management options – the MCC investigated the loss and recovery of mangroves, relationships between drivers of hurricane impact and recovery, effects to ecosystem services, and the ways that managers make information-based decisions. The project team shared products at a recent regional Mangrove and Management Forum that brought together a newly coalescing community of mangrove scientists and managers in the southeastern US and Caribbean.

In this webinar, the project team describes how the mangrove science-to-management community developed and shares an overview of how the results of the MCC have responded to the needs of this growing community.

Speakers:

danielle ogurcak

Danielle Ogurcak, Florida International University

Danielle is a Research Assistant Professor at FIU and Interdisciplinary Science Liaison at Rookery Bay NERR. Her research focuses on the effects of disturbance and regional water management on coastal vegetation ecology. She serves as the MCC Project Lead and Technical Lead for mangrove ecosystem assessment (Task 2).

digna rueda-roa

Digna Rueda-Roa, University of South Florida

Digna is a biological oceanographer, with expertise in processing and producing diverse satellite ocean products. For this project, Digna generated high-resolution (2 m) maps of mangrove coverage and its changes over time.

sara mason

Sara Mason, Duke University, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Sara Mason is a Senior Policy Associate in the Ecosystem Services Program at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. Her work centers on the interdisciplinary nature of natural resource management, with projects focusing on incorporating ecosystem services into natural resource management decisions, nature-based solutions policy and finance, environmental markets, climate resilience policy, and sustainable infrastructure. She led task 3 of the MCC project, focused on assessing the possible ecosystem services impacts of changes to the mangrove ecosystems at both reserves.

brita jessen

Brita Jessen, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey

Brita has served in three positions during the course of this project! She was the Research Coordinator at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve until 2021 and the Interdisciplinary Research and Partnerships Lead at S.C. Sea Grant Consortium (2021-2024). She led task 4 of the MCC focusing on management needs and options, with an additional task of building the Collaborative’s glossary of project-specific definitions for effective communication. 

marissa figueroa

Marissa Figueroa, Rookery Bay NERR

Marissa has been with Rookery Bay NERR since 2018, and has been the Coastal Training Program Coordinator since 2022. The Coastal Training Program serves the reserve and the community to aid in facilitation, relationship-building, and bringing science-based information, tools and training to local decision-makers. As the Co-Collaborative Lead for the Mangrove Coast Collaborative, Marissa has helped to lead the project team meetings, facilitated the interactions with Project Advisory Committees, and was instrumental in planning and facilitating the MCC Mangrove and Management Forum.

Tue 3/18/2025, 3 - 4pm EDT
Speaker(s):
Peter Kingsley-Smith, Brandon Puckett, and Justin Ridge
Direct link to webinar »

In the southeastern U.S., intertidal oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs are primarily managed by state agencies in support of recreational and commercial fisheries, as well as for their ecosystem services. Oyster resource managers and NERR staff often rely on conventional on-the-ground monitoring approaches to inform management and restoration decisions, but these approaches have limitations in that they are time consuming and are of limited spatial scale. In response to users' needs for rapid, standardized and quantitative measures to assess reef condition – which directs management and restoration actions – this project evaluated uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) as a tool for measuring reef changes within five National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs) from North Carolina to Florida. The imagery analysis workflows developed in partnership with oyster resource managers provide quantitative measures of reef structural and demographic metrics and, importantly, changes to those metrics in response to natural and anthropogenic factors.

Speakers:

peter kingsley-smith

Peter Kingsley-Smith, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Dr. Kingsley-Smith has managed the Shellfish Research Section at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ Marine Resources Research Institute (MRRI) in Charleston, SC since 2008. His research team conducts a diverse array of research and monitoring projects related to both molluscan and crustacean shellfish species of recreational, commercial and ecological importance. Advancing our understanding of the performance of living shorelines and facilitating their adoption have been notable achievements of the MRRI research team more broadly in recent years.

brandon puckett

Brandon Puckett, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science

Dr. Puckett is a research biologist in the Coastal Resilience, Restoration and Assessment Branch. His research interests, broadly speaking, center around the ecology of coastal habitats—focusing primarily on oyster reefs, tidal wetlands, and, to a lesser degree, seagrasses. Puckett’s recent research has focused on: 1) developing decision-support tools to inform oyster restoration, 2) evaluating the ability of nature-based solutions to enhance coastal ecosystem and community resilience, 3) applying remote sensing technology (namely drones) to monitor and assess wetlands and oyster reefs.

justin ridge

Justin Ridge, North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve

Dr. Ridge has been the Research Coordinator for the North Carolina NERR since the beginning of 2023. He is experienced piloting a range of UAS and developing remote sensing techniques for extracting ecologically relevant data from coastal habitats to assess ecosystems. Through this project and others, he has provided technical guidance on mission planning, assisted with UAS data acquisition and protocol development, and image analysis. He has been conducting oyster research for over 10 years.

Project contributors:

  • Whitney Jenkins (Collaborative Lead), North Carolina NERR
  • Gary Sundin (Co-technical Lead), South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
  • Dan Bowling, North Carolina State University and NOAA Margaret A. Davidson Fellow at NCNERR
  • Allix North, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
  • Laura Sánchez, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
  • Camille Steenrod, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (CSS, Inc.)
  • Erik Smith, North Inlet- Winyah Bay NERR
  • Nikki Dix, Guana Tolomato Matanzas NERR
  • Rachel Guy, Sapelo Island NERR
  • Alyah Bennett, University of North Florida
  • Colby Peffer, Sapelo Island NERR
  • Lauren Faulk, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
  • Josh Matheson, Duke University, MaRRS Lab
  • Lexi Mitchell, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
  • Kerryanne Newman, North Carolina NERR
Mon 3/3/2025, 2 - 3pm EST
Speaker(s):
Chris Peter, David Burdick, Grant McKown, and Alice Yeates
Direct link to webinar »

Sea level rise and climate change present major threats to tidal marshes nationwide. To track and understand these impacts, the National Marsh Synthesis Team (NAMASTE) has synthesized plant community and sediment accretion data at 85 marshes across 17 coastal states within 20 National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs). Tidal marsh monitoring in the NERRs began nationwide over 10 years ago, allowing NAMASTE the unique opportunity to conduct a first of its kind analysis on a national scale using data collected through a standardized monitoring program. Project goals included: 1) providing insight on how climate change is affecting marshes, both at the national-level and Reserve-level; 2) creating automated tools based in R for data analysis and visualization; and 3) producing science translation products to support management and policy around coastal marshes.

To reach these goals, NAMASTE employed several analytical techniques as well as a collaborative approach engaging coastal researchers, managers and educators around the country. In this webinar, members of the project team shared high-level results and takeaways from the project, as well as their recommendations for how the methods they employed could be transferred to other coastal habitats for future analyses.

Speakers:

chris peter

Chris Peter, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

Chris specializes in near-shore coastal ecosystems with a concentration in tidal marsh ecology- research, restoration and long-term monitoring. He has extensive knowledge in designing and implementing field monitoring, as well as analyzing tidal marsh datasets at local to national scales. Chris co-leads Namaste with Kim Cressman and David Burdick, leading all aspects of the project.

david burdick

David Burdick, Jackson Estuarine Lab, University of New Hampshire

David is a Research Associate Professor of Coastal Ecology and Restoration at the University of New Hampshire, where he has taught wetlands courses over the past twenty years. His study of coastal science spans 35 years, concentrating on coastal wetlands, assessing human impacts, and planning, implementing and assessing habitat restoration at the Jackson Estuarine Laboratory, where he serves as Director. He co-leads Namaste, bringing decades of experience.

grant mckown

Grant McKown, Jackson Estuarine Lab, University of New Hampshire

Grant is a research scientist in the Coastal Habitat Restoration Team specializing in the monitoring and restoration of salt marshes, oyster reefs, and eelgrass meadows in New England. He has extensive knowledge in wetland botany, experimental design of restoration projects, and remote sensing analysis of the natural environment. Grant aided in the quality control and the univariate component of the national analysis. 

alice yeates

Alice Yeates, South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve

Alice is the Stewardship Coordinator at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. Alice has a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Queensland and experience with both estuarine vegetation monitoring and analysing complex and diverse datasets. She has been working on the Namaste project to guide statistical analyses and conduct national level syntheses.

Tue 2/25/2025, 3 - 4pm EST
Speaker(s):
Nicole Grinnan, Anita Grove, Mike Thomin, and Bria Brooks
Direct link to webinar »

Nestled along Florida’s northern Gulf Coast, the Apalachicola River and Bay system is a landscape rich in both natural and cultural heritage. For over 12,000 years, this region has supported diverse ecosystems and communities, from Indigenous groups to early industries like cotton, timber, and fishing. The area now faces mounting challenges, however: the impacts of climate and the subsequent loss of archaeological sites threaten the preservation of these communities’ stories. Ranking as one of Florida’s most under-resourced areas, there is an urgent need to document and preserve the region’s heritage while fostering connections with its current residents.

This webinar spotlighted the "People of the Apalachicola System" project, which combined archaeological research, digital modeling, and innovative community engagement to understand and protect the area’s cultural landscape within the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve. Participants learned about the project’s approach, including methods for engaging local voices through workshops and surveys, as well as how these efforts address threats to heritage resources. The webinar also shared preliminary findings, highlighting effective strategies for fostering collaboration, and explored how these lessons can guide future preservation and education initiatives in similar at-risk areas.

Speakers:

nicole grinnan

Nicole Grinnan, University of West Florida Archaeology Institute

Nicole Bucchino Grinnan serves as the Assistant Director of the University of West Florida’s Archaeology Institute, bringing over 12 years of professional experience in coastal archaeology. Before joining the Institute, Nicole worked as a Faculty Research Associate and Public Archaeologist with the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN), where she led public engagement initiatives and facilitated cultural heritage preservation efforts worldwide. Nicole served as the Project Lead for the “People of the Apalachicola System” project, integrating digital modeling, heritage sites recording, and community engagement to explore the intersection of human culture and the environment in the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve. 

anita grove

Anita Grove, Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve

Anita Grove serves as the Coastal Training Program Coordinator and oversees communications at the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve. In her role, she collaborates with decision-makers, land managers, professionals, and local residents to promote environmental stewardship, identify current and emerging needs, and strengthen partnerships with the Reserve. Through her work, she builds positive relationships across the watershed to support sustainable management and conservation efforts. Prior to joining the Reserve, she was the Executive Director of the Apalachicola Bay Chamber of Commerce, a 400+ member nonprofit supporting small businesses in the Apalachicola Bay area. Throughout her career, Anita has been a steadfast advocate for the Apalachicola River and Bay working to raise awareness about upstream water diversions' impacts on the bay. She also serves as an Apalachicola City Commissioner and is currently serving her second term.

mike thomin

Mike Thomin, Northwest Florida Maritime Landscape Alliance for Preservation

Mike Thomin is the Director of Education and Interpretation at the Florida Public Archaeology Network’s Coordinating Center and a Faculty Research Associate at the University of West Florida. He brings nearly two decades of expertise in public archaeology, heritage education, and nonprofit management. As the co-founder and Treasurer of the Northwest Florida Maritime Landscape Alliance for Preservation, Inc., Mike served as the Collaborative Lead for the “People of the Apalachicola System” project, where he recorded community conversations, conducted archaeological fieldwork, and fostered meaningful engagement with community partners. His work reflects a commitment to building partnerships at local, state, federal, and international levels through impactful heritage projects.

bria brooks

Bria Brooks, Florida Public Archaeology Network

Bria Brooks is a Public Archaeologist with the Florida Public Archaeology Network. Her research interests include coastal and underwater archaeology, Marronage, African diaspora studies, and the history of slavery in the western hemispheres. While finishing her Master’s degree, served as a field archaeologist and community engagement specialist for the “People of the Apalachicola System” project.

Tue 1/28/2025, 3 - 4pm EST
Speaker(s):
Matt Kimball and Robert Dunn
Direct link to webinar »

Foundation species such as the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) serve numerous ecological functions and provide myriad ecosystem services within coastal environments. These reefs improve water quality, stabilize the adjacent salt marsh, and provide key habitat for approximately 300 species, including fishes, shrimps, and crabs, among other fauna. However, due to overfishing, disease and other stressors, oyster reef habitat has declined drastically. With increased conservation and restoration efforts to increase oyster reef quantity, there is a need for a more holistic understanding of oyster reef condition and function for reef-associated fauna.

In 2023, a Catalyst team comprising 4 Reserves and 4 university partners sampled oyster reefs across the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast. The team used traditional sampling, acoustic imaging, stable isotope analyses, oyster disease assays, and environmental DNA to characterize the community of reef-associated fauna. Following the field campaign, the team held two project meetings and a virtual workshop to engage directly with intended users and management agencies. In this webinar, the project team shares high-level takeaways from their field sampling analyses and methods comparisons, describes their successful user engagement process, and gauges interest in further System-wide participation.

Speakers:

matt kimball

Matt Kimball, Baruch Marine Field Lab, University of South Carolina

Matt Kimball is the Assistant Director of the Baruch Marine Field Lab at the University of South Carolina. He has conducted fieldwork on nekton use of estuarine habitats, including oyster reefs, throughout the southeastern US for the past 2 decades. Matt has led the development of using high-resolution acoustic imaging to examine nekton within estuaries. On this project, Kimball led the field sampling effort and worked with the Collaborative Lead and Technical Lead to showcase project results and promote dialogue between researchers and end users.

robert dunn

Robert Dunn, North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR

Robert Dunn is the Research Coordinator at the North Inlet-Winyah Bay NERR at the Baruch Marine Field Lab at the University of South Carolina. He is a marine community ecologist with experience working on numerous species and across varied habitats globally. Dunn has participated in or led five different NSC-funded projects since 2020. Through those projects, he gained experience with the collaborative science process; as Collaborative Lead here, he served as the liaison between the project team, NERR staff, and management end users.

Wed 12/4/2024, 3 - 4pm EST
Speaker(s):
Wally Fulweiler and Lena Champlin
Direct link to webinar »

Salt marsh ecosystems are well-known for their carbon storage capacity – they are also hotspots of respiration, which produces greenhouse gases that can counteract the long-term carbon storage. At the same time, there is a paucity of spatial and temporal measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes in salt marsh ecosystems; this lack of data impairs the ability to manage salt marsh ecosystems effectively for carbon storage. Data are limited by various factors, including logistical and financial constraints of measuring greenhouse gases.

A team from Boston University and the five New England NERRs worked together on a one-year catalyst project to test sensors that measure carbon dioxide, temperature, and humidity in salt marsh environments. The team conducted five field trips throughout the year, incorporating iterative feedback on instrument design, ease of deployment, and alignment with existing monitoring efforts at the NERRs. In this webinar, the team describes the project’s approach to designing low-cost, ultra-portable instruments for measuring greenhouse gas fluxes in salt marshes, major findings that emerged from the work, as well as key applications of the technology for salt marsh restoration and research.

Speakers:

wally fulweiler

Robinson W. "Wally" Fulweiler, Boston University

Wally leads the Coastal Ecology and Biogeochemistry Laboratory, which focuses on how anthropogenic activities affect the ecology and elemental cycling of ecosystems on a variety of scales, from local nutrient loading to global climate change. Recently, her group has been developing new instrumentation that will aid in constraining coastal nutrient and carbon budgets and will help increase access to low-cost technology for democratizing science. Wally is the project lead and came up with the original idea behind the new instrumentation and application to the NERR system.

lena champlin

Lena K. Champlin, Boston University

Lena’s research in coastal ecosystems integrates spatial analysis to quantify ecosystem complexity, historical proxies to contextualize changes in nutrients over time, and collaborative research approaches. During her postdoc, Lena is conducting interdisciplinary research on salt marsh blue carbon and communicating coastal science to public audiences through creative media. Lena helped manage this collaborative project, contributing to fieldwork, integrating feedback, and presenting the results.

Wed 11/6/2024, 3 - 4pm EST
Speaker(s):
Marae West, Even Buckland, and Ray Danner
Direct link to webinar »

Over half of the NERRs have Motus wildlife tracking stations, which provide new information on the presence and movements of animals. Given the NERRS’ increasing number of Motus stations, growth of the resulting databases, and interest in these data from within and outside of the NERRs, there is an opportunity to develop a collaborative community and supporting infrastructure within the NERRS. This catalyst project’s five objectives were to: create a website to display Motus data across the NERRS, develop educational resources, develop an in-person education experience at the North Carolina NERR, construct towers at four sites that previously did not have towers, and promote communication and collaboration among NERRS staff. In this webinar, the project team demonstrates how to use the products that they developed, and discusses how to learn more about Motus and the state of the network within the NERRS and get involved.

Speakers:

marae west

Marae West, Cape Fear Bird Observatory

Marae West is the board chair and science advisor for the Cape Fear Bird Observatory which is based in Wilmington, North Carolina. Maraes serves as the project lead on this NERRS Science Collaborative Catalyst grant. 

evan buckland

Evan Buckland, Cape Fear Bird Observatory

Evan is the co-founder and managing director at the Cape Fear Bird Observatory. Evan serves as the technical lead on the grant and had a hand in every part of the project and managed all of the technicians on the project. 

ray danner

Ray Danner, Althouse & Meade

Ray is a senior research scientist at Althouse & Meade. Ray serves as the collaborative lead. His main focus was to develop R-code to analyze Motus data and to pair the data with SWMP data. He also helped build the dashboard built in this project.