Coastal & Estuarine Ecology Lab

We have had lots of requests, so here are some of our favorite photos from our trip last week to the Peruvian Upper Amazon basin vacation to celebrate 34 years of being married! Lots of amazing people, fish, monkeys, sloths, fungi, bats, and, of course, birds! Wonderful place to visit to experience a place where people have not overtaken most of the jungle footprint!

Final week of summer field work (fall work starts next week!) that included final deployment day, and the monitoring of lots of projects including mangrove Katherine's research looking at marine heat waves and shading effects by mangroves growing on oyster reefs. We also cleaned old mat materials off of 26 reefs this summer in our goal to be plastic-free as soon as possible. We encourage all other groups to avoid plastic for restoration at all costs - removing 10-20 year-old materials that are no longer effective is no fun.

UCF Environmental Studies undergraduate students worked on comparing mangrove encroachment on patch vs fringing oyster reefs for their capstone project. The clients were Dr. Walters (UCF), Annie Roddenberry (FL FWCC), and Casey Craig (FL FWCC). Here is the outreach material that they created to accompany their research results. Good job team!

Another full week of CEELAB summer restoration monitoring - both seagrass and oysters. Here are some photos of the action plus the amazing biodiversity all around us!

Another week of summer 2026, with 3 long days of seagrass restoration completed in Mosquito Lagoon. Lots of great volunteers in the photos. Thanks to the IRLNEP/NOAA and FL FWCC for your support. At the end of photo collection, there are a few images of Paul's birthday boat celebration, day 2, plus an image of Caulerpa ashmeadii, a beautiful but potentially problematic macroalga (seaweed) in the Indian River Lagoon.

Excited to share our newest peer-reviewed publication, with MS candidate Cara as the lead author!

Plastic-Free Alternatives for Oyster Reef Restoration: Laboratory and Field Trials to Determine Efficacy and Environmental Impacts of Novel Restoration Materials Community-based oyster reef restoration historically involved deploying plastic-based restoration units. However, many practitioners now seek to eliminate plastic usage due to environmental concerns. Scientific investigation into the efficacy and environmental safety of novel, non-plastic restoratio...