We work in the area of environmental physiology of marine invertebrates, focussing on factors that affect the growth and reproduction of economically important bivalve mollusks. We have worked within the context of understanding factors that influence shellfishery recruitment, as well as factors that influence growth and production in shellfish aquaculture. Key areas of study include molluscan particle filtration rates, organic seston fluxes in shellfish habitat, and the optimization of aquaculture systems based on these factors. We also study the environmental impacts of shellfish aquaculture systems.
Another area of our research interest involves the role of the uptake of dissolved organic material as a nutrition source for benthic marine invertebrates. Populations of mollusks and other invertebrates actively transport dissolved organic material from seawater at rates that are of nutritional significance to the individual organisms, as well as being of potential significance to the cycling of organic and inorganic nitrogen in shallow estuarine and coastal ecosystems.
We are also interested in the impacts of factors such as fishing effort and nutritional status on the reproduction, recruitment and distribution of bivalve mollusks such as oysters and quahogs in estuarine environments.