One of the FSUCML’s own is graduating this month! Dr. Josh Manning successfully defended his dissertation, “Investigating the foraging, social, and spatial ecology of Caribbean parrotfishes” thus completing his doctoral journey at FSU.

[ST. TERESA, FL] – The Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory and St. James Bay Golf Club successfully kicked off the inaugural Play for the Bay Benefit Golf Tournament on Friday, October 7th.  Twenty sponsors and eighteen teams helped raise over $15K for FSUCML graduate students.

Spring has sprung and now summer is halfway gone! The FSUCML is proud to recognize our three spring and summer graduates – Dr. Ethan Cissell and Master’s students Blake Hamilton and Anthony Sogluizzo. These three students have become forever ingrained in the FSUCML and we all wish them nothing but the best as they move on to their next chapters. Just be sure to come back and visit!

Recent FSU graduate, Blake Hamilton (MSc), recently published his second paper from his Master's thesis concerning the use of river and estuarine energy sources by Apalachicola Bay sharks.

When Dr. Breithaupt joined the FSU Coastal & Marine Lab he was surprised to learn that there were mangroves in the area. Like many, he shared the perception that mangroves weren’t found north of Cedar Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Much of his previous research has explored the importance of carbon in mangrove ecosystems, particularly the soils. So, when Dr. Steinmuller* joined Dr. Breithaupt’s lab as a Postdoctoral Scholar in August of 2021, one of the first projects they tackled was the question of how mangrove replacement of local saltmarshes might affect soil carbon storage in the Apalachicola Bay region.

Last Thursday, there was a prescribed burn in the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) unit of the FSUCML’s North 70 property. Crawfordville based company, Attack-One Fire Management Services, Inc., lead the burn, with assistance from a Tall Timbers crew. The FSUCML wants to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved to make sure it was completed successfully and safely! For more information on prescribed burns and how they help encourage plant re-growth, read this article about our burn last year.

Katherine Henning, a research assistant in Dr. Jeroen Ingels’ Meiolab at the FSUCML, was awarded an IDEA grant by Florida State University to take sediment samples from the Fenholloway and the Econfina rivers this summer. These samples are necessary to continue monitoring the health of the Fenholloway after the Cellulose Mill in Perry, FL relocated its wastewater pipeline to a location closer to the coast.

Announcing a recent publication in the ‘Fish Movement’ special issue of Environmental Biology of Fishes from Ashley Dawdy, a current PhD student of the Grubbs lab. This publication is a result of Ashley’s undergraduate Honors in the Major thesis, completed here at FSU with former Grubbs lab students Dr. Cheston Peterson and Dr. Bryan Keller!

Mark your calendars! FSU’s Great Give is March 9th! This year, FSUCML is asking you to donate to our Academic Diving Scholarship Fund in hopes of making this a yearly scholarship opportunity. Please donate here on March 9th! https://spark.fsu.edu/fsucmldive

FSUCML is excited to announce two new publications this month from FSUCML researchers and their collaborators. The publications examine spatial-temporal patterns in two marine catfish species that utilize the Apalachicola Bay, and risk of commercial bycatch to endangered smalltooth sawfish in Florida fisheries. (Photo credit: Tonya Wiley)