Coastal Ecology and Marine Pollution
Research in this Focus area involves understanding the connections between global change, evolutionary biology, and community ecology, and how marine pollution including plastics, metals, and pesticides impact marine organisms. Field sites include salt marshes, rocky intertidal areas, and the Boston Harbor, but projects may also include experimental work in the lab. A featured new project for our program focuses on the Salicornia depressa, a salt marsh plant that can tolerate heavy metals and understanding how these plants deal with metals and how their abilities affect the salt marshes in which they grow. Other ongoing projects in this Coastal Ecology include intertidal monitoring for the Stone Living Lab, and determining the role of trematode parasites in blue mussel population decline. Projects in Marine Pollution may include quantifying the amounts of microplastics in beach or water samples or performing lab experiments to understand the impacts of contaminants on marine organisms.
Learn more about these Research Groups: