Research Interests:

Comparative Immunology, Invertebrate pathology and disease Invertebrate cytology, Histocompatibility and population genteics, Environmental influences on immunity.

Student Projects:

Marine mammal cytokines; Sponge immunity and pathology; Histopathology of gorgonian coral adajptive alloimmune response; molecular genetic basis of the immunological responses of a gorgonian coral; environmental influences on wound healing; histocompatibility in gorgonian corals.

Representative Papers:

J. Invertebrate Pathology 76: 176-184

J. Invertebrate Pathology 73: 321-331

Biol. Bulletin 181: 127-134

Research Interests:

Program Director in Marine Biology; Fish endocrinology and development, larval fish biology and culture, aquaculture in underdeveloped countries.

Student Projects:

DNA fingerprints of larval fishes; Ontogeny of digestive enzymes; Feeding strategies for ponds in the Philippines.

Representative Papers: 

Research Interests:

Wetland ecosystem ecology, estuarine ecology, biogeochemistry, ecological modeling

Student Projects:

Landscape-level connectivity in isolated wetlands; The effects of phosphorus additions on ecosystem components in freshwater Everglades wetlands; The influences water flow on nutrient/organic matter dynamics in  marshes; The importance of phosphorus in dead fish detritus to ecosystem dynamics in freshwater marshes.

Representative Papers:

Ecol. Mod. 134(1):103-115

Est. Coast. Shelf Sci.36:105-131

Aquatic Botany 62:115-133

Wetlands 19:262-275

Research Interests:

Identifying environmental changes in the geologic past and the extent to which they have affected evolution; Evolutionary rates, communities, and organismal morphology of forans; Relationships between fossil species and their environments are used to track evolutionary, paleoceanographic, paleoclimatic and tectonic changes through time.

Student Projects:

Evolution of deep-sea Caribbean foraminifera, seagrass foraminifera of Florida Bay, marine paleoenvironments of the Miocene of
Ecuador

Relevant Papers:

Geology 24(8): 687-690.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99: 7841-7843.

Research Interests:

The application of molecular data to address systematic and evolutionary questions, particularly within the Mollusca. 

Student Projects:

Population biology of applesnails; Systematics of vermetid molluscs; Population genetics of conchs; Population genetics of Asian swamp eels

Representative Papers:

Nature376:163-165.

Systematic Biology43(3):449-459

SystematicBiology43(4):482-496

Nature 373:565-566 

Research Interests:

Biogeochemistry of the coastal ocean, Nutrient cycling in the marine environment , Primary productivity of aquatic systems; Seagrass physiological ecology, Ecosystem modeling

Student projects:
Relationships between land use and benthic habitat change in the Florida Keys, The importance of competition in structuring plant communities along a disturbance gradient, Nitrogen versus Phosphorus limitation of benthic environments in south Florida, Stable isotope investigations of food webs, Decomposition of mangrove and seagrass biomass along nutrient and salinity gradients, PAM fluorometry as an indicator of seagrass status, Environmental controls on sexual reproduction in seagrasses

Representative papers:
Limnology and Oceanography 46(5):1077-1090
Limnology and Oceanography. 46(6):1278-1286.
Marine Biology 138:341-354.
Aquatic Botany 71(3):217-232.
Water Resources Research 36(7):1805-1822.
Estuaries 22(2B):345-357.

Research Interests:

Coral biology, especially cell biology and skeletogenesis; selected aspects of coral reef ecology

Student Projects:

Effects of turbidity on coral growth, structure and properties of black coral skeleton, calcium and calcification in spicule formation.

Representative Papers:

Bulletin of Marine Science 57: 548-556. Marine Biology156:655-662.

The Biological Bulletin (Woods Hole)192:1-16.

Nature 392: 557-558.

Research Interests:

Phytoplankton ecology, production biology, marine microbial food webs.

Student Projects:

Phytoplankton and microbial community dynamics in Biscayne Bay; Dark survival and mixotrophy  in phytoplankton; new techniques in aquatic flow cytometry

Representative Papers:

Scientia Marina 64(2):183-195

Marine Biology 135: 721-728

Research Interests:
Behavioral and physiological ecology of marine mammals; sensory systems involved in under-ice navigation by seals; development of techniques to study marine mammals in their natural environment; psychophysiolgical studies of captive marine mammals.

Student Projects:
Vocalizations, behavior, and sex hormones in captive spotted seals; ringed seal under-ice movements, behavior and habitat utilization; comparisons of peripheral auditory structures in odontocetes: implications for high frequency hearing strategies; three-dimensional diving behavior of ringed seals

Representative Papers:
Animal Behavior 62(1):67-72 (2001)
Canadian Journal of Zoology 79(8):1455-1464 (2001)
Marine Mammal Science 17(4):909-925 (2001)  
Marine Mammal Science 18(1):55-68 (2002)

Research Interests:

Marine bioluminescent bacteria and their ecology, physiology and luciferase kinetics; particularly their life in fish guts, feces and seawater. The evolution of luciferase kinetic classes and arginine requlation of luciferase synthesis (lux operon). Thiothrix and mixotrophic sulfur oxidation.

Student Projects:
Relationship of LuxA sequences to luciferase kinetic classes; Lux regulatory genes in new isolates of luminous bacteria.

Representative Papers:

Luminescence 14:161-169, 1999
J. Biolumin. Chemilumin 13:147-156, 1998
Appl. Environ. Microbiol 58:2341-2343, 1992

Research Interests:

The biology, ecology and etiology of coral diseases, including identification and characterization of coral microbial pathogens, and the effects of coral disease on the reef.

Student Projects:

Microbial physiology of pathogens associated with black band disease of corals and coral plague; microbial ecology of coral disease pathogens; microbial ecology of coral disease pathogens; microbial motility patterns (phototaxis and chemotaxis); Chemical microenvironments associated with coral pathologies and microbial pathogen metabolism (micrelectrodes); Reef studies of coral population dynamics in terms of disease events

Representative Papers:

Trends in Ecology and Evolution13:438-443

Nature. 392:557- 558.

Bulletin of Marine Science. 61:485-490. 

Research Interests:

Population and Community Ecology; Life history patterns and phenotypic plasticity; Population Genetics and gene flow; Fish Ecology; Ecology of the Everglades.

Student Projects:

Predator-prey studies, population structure, food-web ecology, fish life history

Representative Papers:

Ecology 78:1370-1381;

Evolution 52:1781-1801