June 2025 - Present

Role: Research Assistant I

Louisiana’s commercially and ecologically important oyster reefs face a myriad of environmental and anthropogenic challenges. The Louisiana Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) is an effort to monitor how the diverse communities inhabiting natural and artificial oyster reefs are changing in response to sea level rise, temperature and salinity fluctuation, oil spills, and more.

The part I play in this effort is in the preparation and deployment of six oyster shell habitat trays at six reef study sites across two bays in southern Louisiana. Using plastic crates, mesh bags, PVC poles, and donated shell I build between 12-36 trays and aid in small boat operation to take these trays to our study sites. At each site, live spat abundance, sediment samples, and shell volume are taken and the trays are placed along the reef structure then retrieved, rinsed, frozen, and stored after two weeks.

In the lab, I use compound microscopes, ID guides, and dichotomous keys to sort, identify, and count each and every organism found in a tray. I then take the wet and dry weight of each unique taxonomically identified.