The Layman Lab    aquatic ecology • food webs • restoration ecology • predator-prey interactions

Mid-Atlantic Coast and Salt Marsh Ecology

As an undergraduate and graduate student in the Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Virginia, my research focused on the factors that determine community composition in a variety of coastal habitats. Work in both salt marsh ponds and the ocean surf-zone emphasized the importance of physical drivers in determining organism abundance and distribution. Work with Brian Silliman (University of Florida) contributed to the increasing body of evidence that biotic factors, such as herbivore grazing and predation, can affect marsh productivity.