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 The
Community Ecology Laboratory at the College of William and Mary’s Virginia
Institute of Marine Science is run by Rochelle
Seitz and focuses on field benthic ecology with a concentration in
soft-sediment estuarine and coastal benthic dynamics. In the Community
Ecology Laboratory, we aim to address the important factors influencing
benthic community structure and, in turn, the effects that the benthic
community has on upper trophic levels. The cause of spatial and temporal
variation in benthic community structure and abundance has been the focus
of much recent ecological work. The relative importance of physical
and biotic factors in regulating community patterns can vary with spatial
scale and the nature of the ecosystem (i.e., freshwater vs. marine).
Whereas at large spatial scales bottom-up forces (i.e, food availability)
are most important, at local scales top-down factors (i.e., predation)
dominate. An improved understanding of consumer-resource dynamics,
particularly in productive marine and estuarine systems, can aid in the
management of important upper-trophic-level fisheries and improve our understanding
of the joint effects of top-down and bottom-up factors in marine systems.
Current
Research:
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Source-Sink
Dynamics in Marine Systems: Linking Recruitment, Dispersal, and Post-Settlement
Processes in Space and Time
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Spatial
Dynamics and the Protection of Critical Habitats for the Blue Crab
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Impacts
of Low Dissolved Oxygen on Food-Web Dynamics in Benthic Communities of
Chesapeake Bay
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Predator-prey
dynamics and evolutionary defense tactics for marine bivalves
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