Coastal and Marine Laboratory

Spring brings many things to the Tallahassee area – gorgeous blooms, mild weather, and Florida State University’s commencement weekend! Two exceptional students, Aaron Ridall, now newly minted as Dr. Ridall, and Armando Barsante Santos, also newly minted as Dr. Barsante Santos, have successfully defended their doctoral dissertations and will walk the stage this weekend! The FSUCML is so proud of Aaron and Armando, and we cannot wait to watch them continue to have a positive impact on the future of marine science. Congratulations, Aaron, and Armando!

Current graduate student Aaron Ridall, FSU Dept of Biology undergraduate Emily Farrar, former FSU Dept of Biology undergraduate Morgan Dansby, and FSUCML faculty member Dr. Jeroen Ingels, recently published their work on the influence of wastewater treatment plants and water input sources on size, shape, and polymer distributions of microplastics in St. Andrew Bay, Florida, USA.

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.

Ph.D. student Aaron Ridall has published his first paper in Frontiers in Marine Science journal!! Co-authored by advisor, Dr. Jeroen Ingels, they focused on the role of nematodes as bioindicators across the globe and identified the patchiness regarding their use. They also highlighted future directions they’d like to see addressed in the field of marine nematology with a special emphasis on understanding nematodes' responses to microplastics pollution.

Dr. Jeroen Ingels is editor and featured author in the new issue of Frontiers “Extreme Benthic Communities in the Age of Global Change.”

Dr. Jeroen Ingels joins team of internationally renowned researchers to study the impact of collecting minerals from the deep sea.

An international team led by FSUCML's Dr. Jeroen Ingels found that more than double the number of organisms than previously observed live on the shells of these oceanic reptiles, raising important questions about loggerhead sea turtle ecology and conservation. This ground-breaking study has been picked up by media outlets world-wide! Click the link below for a list of publications.

From 27 September to 3 November we were very fortunate to have Gabriella Ella Pantò as a visiting graduate student at the FSU coastal and marine lab! Originally from Sicily, she recently finished her MSc studies in the international program Ocean and Lakes in Belgium. A long-lasting collaboration between the Marine Biology Research Group at Ghent University and Dr. Jeroen Ingels, resulted in Gabriella joining the NOAA Ocean Exploration funded #HydroSMAC cruise on the RV Point Sur in the Gulf of Mexico, exploring the deep sea, and spent three weeks afterwards helping Dr. Jeroen Ingels identify meiofauna samples.

Ocean deoxygenation has become a topic of increasing concern because of its potential impacts on marine ecosystems, including oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) expansion and subsequent benthic effects. We investigated the influence of oxygen concentration and organic matter (OM) availability on metazoan meiofauna within and below an OMZ in bathyal sediments off Costa Rica, testing the hypothesis that oxygen and OM levels are reflected in meiofaunal community structures and distribution. Mean total densities in our sampling cores (400–1800 m water depth) were highest with 3688 ind.

The Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory, on the Gulf of America coast in north Florida, is a beautiful place. It is not uncommon there to see ospreys and bald eagles eyeing the coastline, pelican formations flying low, dolphins churning the water in a feeding frenzy or sharks cruising the shallows seeking out their next meal. It is also a place where a clear view of the horizon when standing on the beach is the rule, rather than the exception.