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-
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