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UGAMI was established in 1953, so 2023 marks our 70-year anniversary! We wanted to take a moment to look back over this past year.

Our research program is thriving. UGAMI continues to be the base of operations for the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER project, as well as a host for investigators working in the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve. Over 40 papers were published this year as a result of research conducted at UGAMI, and 7 students completed their theses.

We hosted educational groups from both near and far; completed another successful summer semester; and continued collaborating with the Cornelia Walker Bailey program on Land and Agriculture. Other visitors included teacher workshops and several interdisciplinary meetings.

On the facilities side we continue to put effort into campus improvements. We completed the work on one of the 2nd floor labs and put new roofs on the Shell Hammock houses. We’ve also begun renovating the apartment dormitory on the main quad–The outside won’t change, but we are filling in the basement to provide structural support for the building and bringing the interior up to code.

If you would like to support us the best way is to join the Friends of UGAMI. They assist us in multiple ways, from sponsoring students and interns to helping with campus improvements. Donations can be made online, or via check made out to “UGA Foundation”, with “Friends of UGAMI” in the memo line, and sent to us at “Friends of UGAMI, Marine Sciences Building, 325 Sanford Drive, Athens, GA 30602”.

Here’s to the next 70 years!

The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER program (https://gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu/) has two openings, one for a Research Professional and another for a Research Technician, to assist with coastal ecology research on the Georgia coast. Both positions are part of a team that will work on Sapelo Island, GA.

Research Professional: https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/347623

Research Technician: https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/347686

For questions concerning the positions, contact Dr. Steven Pennings – spennings@uh.edu

The main quad of the UGAMI campus is a farm complex that dates all the way back to 1936. Over the past decade we have renovated much of the main lab as well as the two adjacent carriage houses. Now we’re starting to work on the South End Apartment building, which has served as a dormitory facility for students and researchers for the better part of a century. The building is critical for the function of the Marine Institute and serves as an anchor for the original campus. Time, unfortunately, has taken its inevitable toll, and a combination of age and the harsh coastal environment have made it necessary to renovate this building as well. We have just broken ground on the project, and will be working on Apartments 1&2 over the coming months. We won’t be changing the outside, but the interior will be upgraded to meet current code. The renovations are being funded through the State’s Major Renovation and Repair program, with additional contributions from multiple sources within UGA. The project is being carried out by the Parker Young Construction Co, which mobilized a crew this past week. Stay tuned for further updates!

Hurricane Idalia moved through coastal Georgia as a tropical storm this past Wednesday (8/30), and thankfully UGAMI made it through unscathed. The staff sprang into action, moving vehicles to higher ground, putting up the hurricane barriers, and generally making sure that things were picked up in advance of potential flooding and high winds. As you can see from the graphs, the wind peaked at approximately 27 m/s (~ 60 mph) and we got only a brief spike of rain. Interestingly, instead of flooding the storm actually pulled water away from the shore so water levels were lower than usual. The power was out from Wednesday until late Thursday night and we lost some shingles off the roof of the shop, but other than that we fared pretty well. Let’s hope we don’t have to do this again anytime soon. (And thanks again to the UGAMI staff!)

Students from the Coastal Summer Semester gave their final research presentations Friday afternoon, June 30. The presentations were the culmination of two intensive weeks spent designing and conducting field-based marine ecology research projects. Students often started early in the morning and worked late into the night. Through this effort the students gained valuable laboratory and field experience, honed their understanding and application of the scientific method, and got to work with skilled mentors. Research topics were divided into four general categories: parasite ecology, invertebrate behavior, faunal distributions, and adaptations of primary producers.

After nearly 16 years, Jacob Shalack is officially leaving UGAMI on July 1. Jacob is a Research Professional who has worked with many researchers as the lead technician of the GCE-LTER, and since 2013 has also served as the Assistant Director for Operations at UGAMI. He is moving to the Office of the VP for Research on the UGA main campus, where he’ll be a Facilities Professional. We plan to continue working with him in his new capacity.

In the meantime, we have hired two new Assistant Directors, both of whom started on June 1. Nick Macias, the new Assistant Director for Operations, is a freshwater ecologist with experience as a field site manager and research and education coordinator for Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch. He hails most recently from Georgia Southern, where he was a visiting faculty member. Tom Hancock, the new Assistant Director for Academics, is a coastal ecologist who has worked in both private and public settings, including as Director of Conservation for the Bald Head Island Conservancy. Tom was a professor in the Biology Department of Middle Georgia State University, and in that capacity has been bringing marine biology classes and research students to Sapelo Island since 2016. We welcome them both to the team!

The Coastal Summer Semester students arrived on Sapelo Island Sunday afternoon, June 4th. The program is off to a great start! Thus far students have trawled on board the R/V Spartina, learned about oyster ecology, salt marsh dynamics, black gill in shrimp, and nearshore plankton communities, as well as discovered various marine invertebrates and vertebrates along the way.

Lab and field activities have included phytoplankton chlorophyll extraction, measurement of fish abundance and diversity in the estuary, oyster parasite and disease recognition and quantification, and seine netting from the beach. Next week students will begin to design and execute their independent research projects. If this type of immersive, hands-on, inquiry-based experience looks interesting, please consider our Spring 2024 Semester Program.

The Ocean Memory Project , a growing group of thinkers spanning divergent scientific and artistic practices who work to broaden understanding and awareness of ways in which the ocean retains, expresses, and loses memory, recently hosted a workshop at UGAMI, organized by UGA Professor Mandy Joye, focused on the topic of memory loss in relation to system processes and human memory. 

They had formal presentations (at the Institute, in the field, and during nature walks), structured and unstructured discussions, creative activities, and immersive experiences on the island with free time to connect with other participants.

The presentations covered a range of scales upon which biological systems communicate and remember – from molecules to ecosystems and coastlines. Speakers covered topics ranging from human history and memory, including a focus on historical and modern human populations on Sapelo Island; the geological history of barrier islands; the role of chemical signaling in memory; the role of story-telling and science writing in ocean science communication; the impact of natural disasters on ecosystem dynamics, including stress-hardening and ecological memory in corals; and pollution and system memory loss resulting from the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 

We are very excited to announce Dr. Emlyn Resetarits will be joining UGAMI as our inaugural Scientist-in-Residence.  Dr. Resetarits has been teaching as part of our Marine Biology Spring semester for several years and will be joining the UGAMI faculty full-time in Spring 2023.  She has already begun setting up her research in a dedicated space in the newly renovated north wing of the main lab.  We welcome Dr. Resetarits and her research to UGAMI and are truly excited about the research opportunities and wealth of knowledge she brings to our students and research community.

A little bit more about Dr. Resetarits:

She received her PhD from UT-Austin where she investigated how environmental variables influence parasite community assembly across spatial and organizational scales, focusing primarily on salt-marsh ecosystems.  She continued her research at the Odum School of Ecology at UGA in the Byers Lab where she combined field surveys with lab and field manipulations to quantify the role that parasites play in aquatic ecosystems.   

Dr. Resetarits’ work provides valuable insight into how parasites interact at the ecosystem level and how behavior and community-level dynamics may contribute to those interactions. 

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Resetarits to our community!  We look forward to hearing more about what she uncovers in the marsh.