My future research will focus on biogeochemical processes (nutrient and energy fluxes and pools) and lower order food web interactions in mangrove estuaries. Currently the Bahamian estuaries are facing significant impact from development and other anthropogenic perturbations. I am interested in understanding how habitat fragmentation (i.e. roads that cross the estuaries obstructing natural tidal flow) is affecting the natural function of these estuaries. My goal within this portion of my research is to characterize the presently unknown rates of nutrient uptake within these systems and then to determine the nutrient and energy pathways (i.e. water column to basal resource to primary consumer) that ultimately support these estuarine food webs. I hope to provide a basis of understanding of the bottom-up processes that influence higher order food web interactions.
Research
Presently I am working in collaboration with Dr. Craig Layman of Florida International University studying food web structure and dynamics within Bahamian mangrove estuaries. We are currently using plastic dart tags (small external fish tags) and acoustic telemetry to study short-term (within estuary) and long-term (between the estuary and near-shore habitat) movement patterns. Developing an understanding of short-term movement patterns allows us to characterize the influence of tidal fluctuations on food web structure and dynamics (i.e. predatory prey interactions and diurnal vs. nocturnal feeding preferences). Understanding long-term movement patterns of transient consumers and fish that undergo ontogentic habitat shifts allows insight into the level of connectivity of estuaries to the marine environment. To date we have tagged over 400 fish with plastic dart tags, installed over 80 radio frequency receivers and tagged over 50 fish (snapper, barracuda and tarpon) with radio transmitters.