Howdy from Dr. Douglass

Hi Field Studies Students!

I'm James Douglass, one of your instructors for the Florida Gulf Coast University portion of this course. My research specialty is seagrass ecology, but I am broadly interested in marine biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics, and in saving marine life from man-made threats. I look forward to showing you the beauty of Southwest Florida's "Estero Bay" estuary, but also showing you how it is being degraded by over-development and overuse, in combination with natural disasters like last summer's Hurricane Irma.

The other instructors for the FGCU unit, Drs. Joanne Muller, Serge Thomas, and Kara Lefevre, will offer some different perspectives on the Estero Bay ecosystem, including a look back in time at the early geological history of the estuary and then how its marine resources supported the mighty Calusa Empire in pre-European times.

Can't wait to meet you all!

-JGD

Picture of me with student interns doing seagrass research-

Welcome to the 2018 Marine Field Studies course!

Welcome, everyone!  This is the blog that the Marine Field Studies students will be maintaining during their course this summer which begins May 10th.  I am one of the instructors for the course and we are really excited to get things rolling!  I am a professor at University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP) and study interactions of cephalopods with many aspects of their environments.   My current focus is on the deep sea organisms of the Gulf of Mexico (0-1500 m deep).  

 

Students will begin posting their introductions within the next few weeks so stay tuned!