Research Topics and Mentors

Research covers sedimentation processes and interactions with sediment-dwelling organisms and others that reside on the bottom for part or all of their life histories.

Documenting and investigating changes in hurricane activity, climate variability, and decadal- to century-scale trends using biogeochemistry of natural systems influenced by climate and numerical modeling.

Research addresses a diverse array of pollutants and processes that occur in the Bay using chemical, genetic, and physiological assessment.

Research in developing new coastal sensor technologies for marine science and developing observing systems.

Genetics, chemical transformations, biogeochemistry, and nutrient cycling in the Chesapeake underlie the high productivity of the system and are an important focus of research.

Linkages of physical conditions, nutrient inputs, plankton production, and fish yields are under study in both observational and modeling programs.

Recruitment, habitat, and stock assessment for managing important commercial fish populations are active areas of research. Other areas include aquatic species conservation.

Research focuses on aquatic microbial ecology, microbial food webs, microbial cycling, composition and activity of natural microbial communities. Researchers use molecular and genomic approaches (rRNA, DNA, bioinformatics) to study aquatic microbes and quantify genetic abundance/expression.

Mathematical constructs and data analysis, including ecosystem models and remotely sensed data, are used to develop predictive tools on the function of Chesapeake Bay.

Focus is on physical structure of the Chesapeake, including sediment distribution and transport, circulation, stratification, and small-scale processes.