Marine Ecology Lab
Julie is a doctoral student in the Byers lab and has been working with the team since January 2016. She is interested in community ecology. Some of her previous work includes studying community dynamics in eelgrass beds, monitoring recovery of disturbed sandy shore habitats, and surveying migrating shorebird foraging behaviors.
Daniel is interested in spatial interactions between ecosystem engineers and how small changes to these interactions could cause major ecosystem function shifts. He has 6 years of experience coordinating oyster restoration and living shoreline projects, which has lead to his current work studying oyster and Spartina interactions.
Website: robertdanielharris.com
Camilla joined the Byers lab as a doctoral student in 2022. She is interested in how invasive species spread and affect the ecosystems in which they establish. Her current research investigates how warming ocean temperatures due to climate change induce range expansions of marine invertebrates, and if populations will persist at the leading edge of the range. Before joining the Byers lab, she taught high school biology and environmental science.
Matt is interested in the relationships between the biotic and abiotic factors in coastal salt marshes. He is currently focused on how organisms move within and between wetlands and their interactions with Spartina alterniflora. His previous work focused on zooplankton community composition and cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms in freshwater reservoirs.
Megan is interested in investigating the relationships between parasites, the environment, human activity and host population cycles. Her research blends theoretical and predictive modeling with empirical experiments. Currently, she is conducting experiments on shrimp black gill disease in coastal Georgia to parameterize a model that simulates the population level effects of the disease. She is co-advised with Richard Hall in the IDEAS program.
Shelby is interested in understanding how spatial and temporal variation in coastal habitats influences species interactions, energy flows, and ecosystem dynamics. For her postdoc, she is investigating how multiple stressors affect oyster reef structure, function and disease dynamics.
Website: https://www.shelbyziegler.net/
Blake began working in the lab his freshman year. He is investigating effects of parasites on oyster filtration.
Sarah is an Ecology major interested in socio-ecological interactions and science communication. Her work focuses on conducting DNA extractions and qPCR to assess disease dynamics in oysters and assisting with spatial analyses to understand how land use change influences oyster reefs using tools in ArcGIS.
Hanna is an Honors student with broad interests. She has aided projects on vertebrate use of salt marsh habitat and developing parasites as biological indicators.
Elianna is a third-year student pursuing a career in Marine Biology. Since growing up in Hawai’i, she has always had a fascination with marine life and is excited to expand her knowledge through research in the lab.
Sarah is a second year Ecology and Ocean Science student interested in marine ecology, environmental justice, and ethnobotany. She is currently working on projects involving water access on the southeastern coast and oyster parasites.
Henry is an Honors student in ecology and mathematics, interested in theoretical ecology and ichthyology. He is currently working on modelling invasive species populations.