My current research investigates ecosystem response to sea level rise and saltwater intrusion in the coastal wetlands of North Carolina. In this region, both marshes and forested wetlands are experiencing rapid vegetation shifts and loss of land to open water. I aim to understand how chronic salt stress affects ecosystem processes such as carbon sequestration and nutrient retention. My research centers around a large scale salt + fertilizer addition experiment (left) and I'm also use remote sensing to investigate regional scale vegetation changes in this landscape. |
Vegetation Change in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge
Data+, an initiative for undergraduate research at Duke, as allowed me to partner with largest wildlife refuge in the state of North Carolina
for a project aimed at mapping coastal vegetation change. During the summer of 2019, I led a team of students to create vegetation maps of the entire refuge using satellite imagery from the Landsat missions. Our maps will help wildlife managers understand how the refuge has changed overtime and may help identify areas for targeted restoration efforts. |
Previous ResearchI conducted my masters research at Yale University under the advisement of Dr. Peter Raymond. My masters work focused on the fate of phosphorus from agricultural fertilizers in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. I used the isotopic signature of oxygen in phosphate (PO4) to trace fertilizer phosphate from agricultural drainage ditches to the main-stem of the Mississippi River. My interest in this work arose from the need to better understand the impacts of agricultural nutrient export on downstream water bodies. This research may help to inform best management practices for preventing negative environmental impacts from agricultural runoff. My results indicated that despite high net phosphorus export from agricultural regions, the percent of phosphorus entering surface water without first being utilized in some way by organisms (consumption by plants or bacteria) is quite low. This work also demonstrated the utility of the oxygen isotopes of phosphate as a tracer for phosphorus in the environment (Ury, et al., in prep).
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