Marine tardigrades are common but infrequently observed microscopic members of marine meiobenthic communities. Although some are epiphytic on algae and a few are epizoic, most species are interstitial, i.e., living among grains of sediment. They are found in sediments ranging from mud to coarse sand, from the intertidal zone to the deep sea. I am especially interested in intertidal and shallow water forms living in beach sand from both coasts of North America and from the coral sands of the Caribbean. Click here for publications on this topic.
Teaching while being literally immersed in the medium is the setting which field biologists relish. There, a sense of physical adventure couples with intellectual discovery in a way which can't help but infect willing students. I have had the luxury of teaching in such settings throughout my Drew career and, for nearly 10 years, at the Shoals Marine Laboratory in Maine. One outcome of this experience has been the publication of a set of identification keys, A Practical Guide to the Marine Animals of Northeastern North America. Follow that link to more information on that publication.
Physical and chemical measurements of environmental conditions in streams can
tell you of circumstances occurring at the moment. But it is particularly valuable
to gather information which can tell you about environmental circumstances covering
a longer time period. An assessment of the community of macroinvertebrates found
in stream sediments can be used to draw such inferences. For certain organisms
to endure and flourish, surrounding variables must remain within their ranges
of tolerance.
Studies of these types are applied to the 5 streams which converge on the nearby Great Swamp National Refuge and to the tributaries of the Rockaway River to our north.
Reports on the
Macroinvertebrate Communities of the Great Swamp Watershed, 2000 - 2003
Reports of the Macroinveretbrate Communities of the Rockaway River Watershed, 2001-2003