EBL's marine research interests cover a broad range of habitats (e.g. estuarine, oceanic, temperate, tropical), scales (e.g. molecular to ecosystem) and processes (e.g. gene expression to global biogeochemistry) pertaining to our overriding interests in understanding the physiological ecology of marine algae and seagrasses. Below you will find brief overviews of our major, publicly funded, research programs and links to more details on each.

Carbonate Dissolution in Shallow Water Tropical Sediments: The Role of Seagrasses
The goal of this study is to understand the impact of seagrass meadows on the biogeochemistry of carbonate dominated sediments. Shallow water carbonate sediments are less than 5% of all oceanic sediments, yet are responsible for a significant amount (~30-40%) of the oceanic carbonate production and total net oceanic carbonate accumulation. Shallow water carbonate dissolution may also be of similar magnitude to that observed in the deep sea, although its importance in global carbonate budgets is poorly constrained. While carbonate dissolution in shallow water tropical and sub-tropical sediments has been observed, budgets have generally not been closed with respect to the amount of carbonate dissolved and the amount of acid production from sediment organic matter remineralization required to produce this amount of dissolution. It has been suggested that oxygen transport into sediments through the roots and rhizomes of seagrasses might play a role in resolving this mass balance problem, and our recent work in shallow water Bahamian carbonate sediments provides additional evidence in support of this suggestion. Seagrass-mediated carbonate dissolution may also play a role in phosphorus acquisition by these plants. More detail. . .

Radiative Transfer in Optically Shallow Waters
The goal of this study is to understand light absorption and reflection by organisms living on the seafloor in shallow coastal waters. This will help us evaluate the productivity of coastal waters and map coastal resources using aircraft and satellites (remote sensing). More detail. . .

Seagrass Photosynthesis: Response to Climate Change
The goal of this study is to understand how the productivity of important coastal ecosystems dominated by seagrasses will respond to increases in CO2 concentrations resulting from fossil fuel combustion. These results will allow us to predict changes in seagrass distribution in response to global climate change and to develop technology for seagrass restoration and CO2 removal from the atmosphere.

Biochemistry of Domoic Acid (DA) Production in Marine Diatoms (Pseudo-nitzschia spp.) • The goal of this study is to understand how domoic acid is made in nature and to identify the metabolic function(s) of this novel toxic amino acid. This research will improve our ability to predict the occurrence of toxic blooms and to identify therapeutic strategies for detoxification.