Plum Island Ecosystems LTER

Camila stands next to her thesis defense title slide, which reads: Something Doesn't Add Up: Exploring Biological Nitrogen Fixation as a Source of Nitrogen in Marshes of the Plum Island Sound Estuary, MA

Camila standing on the marsh with fellow Weston lab members Tenley Ransom, Paris Baker, and Erin Johnson, on a sunny day out taking sediment core samples; Erin is holding a Russian peat corer

Congratulations! to Camila Silva for successfully defending her MS thesis: "Exploring Heterotrophic Nitrogen Fixation as a Source of Nitrogen in the Marshes of Plum Island Sound Estuary, MA". Supervised by Nat Weston at Villanova, Camila also served as a PIE grad student rep.
@uslter.bsky.social

Summer 2026 Research Experience for Undergraduate at PIE-LTER applications open! Do research in a beautiful saltmarsh, maybe get a little wet and muddy, work with great folks, learn a lot, and present your project @mblscience.bsky.social
#REU #NSF @uslter.bsky.social www.mbl.edu/education/in....

Environmental Futures Forum 2025: Director's Thoughts Director of the Environmental Institute, Karen McGlathery, reflects on two days of discussions around world-class research in sustainability, resilience, and environmental change.

Director of the Environmental Institute, Karen McGlathery, reflects on two days of discussions around world-class research in sustainability, resilience, and environmental change.
environment.virginia.edu/news/environ...

In November 2024, after two growing seasons of treatments, you can really see the effect of #nitrogen fertilization in our field plots at North Inlet-Winyah Bay, SC! We are testing the effect of ammonium vs. nitrate inputs on #saltmarsh plant and microbe responses.

During National Estuaries Week, we're reflecting on our blue carbon work & the role of coastal ecosystems in storing carbon.

Check out our blog with Dr. Matthew Costa @mangrovematt.bsky.social: buff.ly/8qHDj5A

#NationalEstuariesWeek #CommunicationSkills #SciComm #SciPol #StrategicMessaging

Since 2023, we (@bowenlab.bsky.social, @randallhughes.bsky.social) have been testing how nitrogen inputs affect #saltmarsh plants, microbes, and carbon and nitrogen cycling, @pie-lter.bsky.social in Massachusetts and at North Inlet Winyah Bay NERR in South Carolina.

Thanks to @uslter.bsky.social #APEAL project for kick-starting this work by enabling engagement and collaboration with the local shellfishing community, whose concerns guided these new projects. 5/5

#NSF #REU #PES @mblscience.bsky.social @northeasternu.bsky.social

David Kimbro presents a poster done by REU student Lindsey Davies showing results from recruitment box that were harvested mid-season. Bar graphs on the poster show that yes, the boxes had clams! On a table is an example of one of the boxes, and an aquarium holds some predatory crabs.

Whether predation or poor larval settlement has caused the decline in iconic softshell clams is being studied using recruitment boxes that protect larval and baby clams from predators. Local aquaculture is increasing oyster harvests. Efforts like these can help restore and support the fishery. 4/5

Mya and Jen stand at their table, with a graphical poster behind them describing current microbial methods and examples of coliform bacteria colonies growing on culture plates displayed on the table. The two methods are to be used side by side.

But if contaminants are in the water, shellfish may ingest those as well, with negative effects on the shellfish and harvestability. @bowenlab.bsky.social and @myadarsan.bsky.social are using new approaches to better identify sources and types of contaminants which may help mediate inputs. 3/5

Two large and two small aquaria set up on a table under a shade tent. One large aquarium holds softshell clams and the other holds oysters. Microalgae had been added to both. The small aquaria hold clear water or water clouded with microalgae for comparison.

Hannah Orton measures the change in turbidity in the aquaria using a water quality sonde.

Filter-feeding shellfish like oysters and clams remove algae from estuarine water (thereby also remove nitrogen), promoting water clarity and quality, easily visible and measurable in demo tanks of shellfish with algae compared to tanks with no algae, even approaching the clarity of tap water. 2/5

A group of six people stand around a display table under a shade tent to talk about using current methods in microbiology to identity sources and types of microbial contamination that may be present in estuarine waters, especially after a rainstorm.

A group of six people, standing under a shade tent, watch a demonstration of oysters and softshell clams filter the water held in separate aquaria, and compare them to an aquarium with clear water, and one with water clouded by microalgae but containing no shellfish.

Fun Trails and Sails event this week showcasing new work centered on how estuary and shellfish health are intertwined and the need for people to foster both. We always get engaged attendees from the local community and make great new connections! 1/5
trailsandsails.org

Multiple Early Career Faculty Positions in Ecology The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame invites applications for multiple, tenure-track assistant professor positions that will enhance existing institutional excellence in ecology. We are searching broadly for creative and collaborative individuals (1) working at any spatial scale, from local to global, in any system, (2) studying any level of biological organization, from genes to ecosystems, and (3) using any mode of inference, from empirical to theoretical. Applicants should demonstrate research excellence that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries; ongoing growth in the department will emphasize new hires that use quantitative and/or integrative approaches to study ecological processes. Postdoctoral experience is desirable in applicants. Successful candidates will engage with and benefit from UNDERC, Notre Dame’s 8000-acre environmental field station and home to NEON’s Great Lakes domain, superb on-campus chemical and genomic analytical facilities, an experimental research facility located close to campus, cross-disciplinary interactions through multiple centers and institutes including the Environmental Change Initiative, and a unique Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program in Environment and Society. New faculty will benefit from Notre Dame’s recent campus-wide Strategic Framework that included the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative. Modern research facilities exist in a new environmental research building, which opened in 2025.

Multiple ecology faculty positions at @notredame.bsky.social. Apply at apply.interfolio.com/171650. (1/2). 🌎🌐🧪

2026 OCB Activity Proposal Solicitation now open until Oct 24 - spread the word! www.us-ocb.org/science-supp... @nacp-carbon.bsky.social @usclivar.bsky.social @ccspo.bsky.social @solas-ipo.bsky.social 🌊

How do we measure #denitrification in our #saltmarsh ammonium and nitrate treatment plots at @pie-lter.bsky.social? Anne Giblin and Jane Tucker from @mblscience.bsky.social bring the lab into the field for this in situ "push-pull" denitrification measurement.

Cluster hire in ecosystem ecology at UGA! Come join us! 🌎🌱

Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability A multidisciplinary journal bridging environmental, social and economic fields to advance solutions which enable the sustainable use of the world’s oceans

Do you work on #ocean #sustainability?
Are you interested in protecting and conserving the ocean?
submit your research to our journal Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability
#MarineEcology
#Research
#Science
@frontiersin.bsky.social
www.frontiersin.org/journals/oce...

New paper! from Aiyin Zhang, Gil Pontius & colleagues describing a new method to map and quantify gross rather than net patch dynamics in a landscape, demonstrated for PIE marsh and pond change over 2 time intervals spanning 75 yrs @clarkuniversity.bsky.social @uslter.bsky.social #NSF
rdcu.be/evcei

Our #NSF grant, supporting a fruitful collaboration with the @cissyballen.bsky.social Lab, was terminated, along with over 1,600 others. We describe the impact of this loss in a press release here. datanuggets.org/2025/06/nsf-...

Comparative Metabolism and Blue Carbon Sequestration of Two Wetland-Dominated Estuaries | Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research Coastal tidal wetlands and estuaries play important roles in the global carbon budget by contributing to the net withdrawal of CO2 from the atmosphere. We quantified the linkages between terrestrial a...

Comparative Metabolism and Blue Carbon Sequestration of Two Wetland-Dominated Estuaries

spj.science.org/doi/full/10....

#PlanktonInOurMidst #artsience now @mblscience.bsky.social exhibit center-gift shop, celebrating plankton through art by Krisanne Baker, plus slide show and science panels from Liz Cunningham, OceanFluxProgram, BLE-LTER, us, and others from MBL Ecosystems Center www.lizcunningham.net/plankton-in-...

Thanks! There were great talks, demonstrating the impact of Ecosystems Center for 5 decades thru its research & legacy of alums, addressing environmental issues from many angles and in cross-disciplinary collaboration, with #NSFfunded #LTERs often at the core enabling vital long term data collection

Rising Seas Impair Salt Marsh Growth in Response to Nitrogen Supply, Global Study Finds | Marine Biological Laboratory

A new analysis from the MBL presents evidence that accelerating sea level rise may hamper salt marsh plants’ ability to use nitrogen, a nutrient crucial for their growth 🌱 Read more: bit.ly/3Gwazce

📷 Daniel Cojanu

Interested in careers outside academia?

Next Wednesday, May 7, at 10 PT—

Join our Career Forum to learn what folks do with a science degree—from tribal work to consulting. Put on with CESU!

Check it out below, and register at the link!
lternet.edu/events/91881/

Synthesis Skills for Early Career Researchers (SSECR) Final Symposium lternet.edu/events/synth...

Collaboration with Shellfishers: an APEAL Seed Project - LTER In October, over fifty attendees at the PIE LTER gathered in a local pub to acknowledge one another's' concerns for issues in the Sound.

Excited to embark on new projects with new collaborators to work on issues facing the shellfishing community in Great Marsh/Plum Island Sound estuaries, thanks to @uslter.bsky.social APEAL support. #NSFfunded

April in the salt marsh at @pie-lter.bsky.social means that the Spartina alterniflora is sending up new shoots! See the little green new leaves among the brown of the previous year's dead biomass. This #saltmarsh plant's rhizomes overwinter underground but send up new leaves each spring. Apr 2023

Sandy has been tireless in support of shellfishing, a mentor to countless students, active member and past president of NEERS, author, and all around great person. Thank you Sandy!

newenglandestuarineresearchsociety.wildapricot.org

Sandy Macfarlane received the NEERS Achievement Award from #NEERS President Danielle Perry, for those who "have made significant contributions over a period of years to estuarine science, education, conservation, or management". Congratulations, Sandy, so well-deserved! 1/2

Also at the meeting was John Logan, PIE RA 2001-2003 now at MA Div. Marine Fisheries, who provided some of the person power needed to install many of the SETs! Thanks John!

Sam Kelsey & Risa McNellis giving a poster at #NEERS; GPS elevation transects at saltmarsh sites surveyed 20 yrs apart show accretion at most sites, with higher rates at low elevations, but many not keeping up with sea level rise. Rates compared well with SET data. #LongTermData @uslter.bsky.social