Syeda Sadia Ali

Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship

Fellowship Institution:

NOAA OAR Ocean Acidification Program NOAA OAR Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program

Start Year:

2026

Syeda Sadia Ali is a 2026 Executive Knauss Fellow with NOAA OAR’s Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program and Ocean Acidification Program. She recently completed her master’s degree, where she studied water isotope patterns across 31 rivers and streams in Maryland. Her research experience spans freshwater systems and Arctic science, including work with an Arctic research lab and participation in an Arctic research cruise.

Program Announcements

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News and Blogs

June 2, 2026

Taking a Practical, Community-led Path to Identify Flooding Solutions

May 26, 2026

Shoreline Planting Brings Chesapeake Conservation and Climate Corps Together at the Wye

May 15, 2026

Chesapeake Scientists Build Connections Around Aquatic Viral Ecology

Video Gallery

Sea Grant Film Explores a Diminishing Smithville

Smithville is a community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, on the edge of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. A century ago, Smithville had more than 100 residents. Today, it has four, in two homes: an elderly couple, and one elderly woman and her son, who cares for her.

Featured Fellow

Nina Santos

Nina Santos is a Ph.D. student at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. For her dissertation, she is focused on small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids – an understudied yet important part of many estuarine and coastal food webs.

Featured Research Project

Developing a habitat model for mysids, an important link in Chesapeake Bay food webs

Mysids are important mesozooplankton prey for many species of fish in Chesapeake Bay and are an important link in transferring energy from lower to upper trophic levels. Mysids also serve as biological vectors for benthic-pelagic coupling due to their diel vertical migration and omnivorous prey-switching behavior, which makes mysids important regulators of food web architecture. Despite their central role in coastal food webs, surprisingly little is known about mysid ecology and dynamics in Chesapeake Bay.

View Project

The Blue Crab: Callinectes Sapidus

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