Category: news

Four students from the UGA College of Engineering visited UGAMI last week as part of a project focused on exploring new housing options for visiting researchers. The project is part of their capstone senior design course, a year-long class that provides students an opportunity to work on a real-world engineering challenge with a client – in this case, the Marine Institute. Working with a larger interdisciplinary research team from UGA, the students’ broader goal is to consider how their designs could offer an affordable alternative to housing in coastal Georgia and other southeastern states where strong wind events and sea level rise are significant challenges. 

In addition to engineering, the interdisciplinary team includes colleagues from the College of Environment and Design, the Department of Geography, the Department of Marine Sciences, the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant, the Office of Research, and the Office of the University Architect.

The engineering students will conduct their initial research and develop design alternatives during the current semester, then refine their concepts this spring based on feedback from the interdisciplinary research team. In April 2022, the capstone team will deliver a set of engineering drawings to the Marine Institute that will include site plans and details of their proposed resilient coastal homes.  

We can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Engineering students explore coastal housing challenges 

A film crew from PBS visited the UGA Marine Institute this past winter and did a segment on salt marshes (and GCE-LTER research in particular) for their “Changing Seas” program. The show is due to be broadcast on June 23 at 8:30 pm. The preview is here (https://www.pbs.org/video/at-the-waters-edge-the-salt-marsh-h2shaw/) and the show itself will be available at https://www.changingseas.tv/.

Two regular researchers at UGAMI, Dr. Nik Heynen and Dr. Mary Ann Moran, are being honored for their work. Dr. Nik Heynen, professor in the Department of Geography at UGA, was recognized as a Distinguished Research Professor 2021. Dr. Heynen is the co-director of UGA’s Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land and Agriculture and a principal investigator on the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Project (GCE LTER), both of which are based on Sapelo Island. His work focuses on how the social constructs of race, class and gender have intersected to produce uneven geographical development. He studies how social movement institutions organize across space to identify and secure adequate resources for communities.  

Dr. Mary Ann Moran recently received one of the highest honors a scientist can earn, election to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Moran is a Regents’ Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at UGA. Dr. Moran is part of UGAMI’s faculty and has several ongoing research projects that involve the Institute. She was also instrumental in founding UGAMI’s Coastal Summer Semester program and serves as a faculty instructor in UGAMI’s Marine Biology Spring Semester. Dr. Moran is internationally recognized for her work in marine microbiology and marine ecology. Her work illuminates the roles that microbes play in mediating globally significant processes associated with the cycling of nutrients such as carbon and sulfur between the ocean and atmosphere.  

Congratulations to both extraordinary researchers for these well-deserved awards! 

Mary Price, who was one of our dedicated employees, passed away last March. There has not been a formal memorial service due to COVID-19. However, this past week the UGAMI staff gathered to dedicate the newest boat in our fleet in her honor, the “M.T. Price”. This new Carolina skiff will be an invaluable asset for the education of our students, and we are looking forward to many new adventures.

A recent paper that looked at changes in tidal creeks in southeastern marshes found that the purple marsh crab, Sesarma, is reshaping the landscape. The paper, which appeared in PNAS, was highlighted in the January 2021 issue of Scientific American. The researchers provide evidence that rising seas are increasing inundation of tidal creeks, making them softer and hence easier for the crabs to burrow. This is an intriguing idea that suggests that there are feedbacks between crabs and marsh drainage. The team conducted much of its field work at Sapelo and included many familiar faces (Sinead Crotty, who did much of her graduate research at UGAMI and is now at Yale, was the lead author of the paper). The Scientific American article, which can be found here, also gives a shout out to UGAMI. Check it out!

What better place to learn about salt marshes than Georgia! UGAMI had a crew from PBS on site last week shooting footage for a program focused on salt marshes as part of a series called Changing Seas (www.changingseas.tv). The crew went out in the field with GCE-LTER researchers to film them in action at the long-term plots and sampling the vegetation near the flux tower, and they also visited the SALTEX experimental site and got a chance to see our drone survey of Dean Creek. The crew was tested before they came and all involved observed social distancing rules, and the whole thing went off without a hitch. After Sapelo, they headed up to Skidaway for some additional filming. The program is due to air in June.