Mid-Atlantic Coast and Salt Marsh Ecology

As an undergraduate and M.S. student in the Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Virginia, my research focused on the factors that determine community composition in a variety of shallow coastal habitats. Research in salt marsh ponds and the ocean surf-zone emphasized the importance of physical drivers in determining organism abundance and distribution. Collaborations with Brian Silliman (Duke) revealed that biotic factors, such as herbivore grazing and predation, also can affect marsh productivity.