Experts Guide

Albert Hine is a geological oceanographer who studies sedimentary geology/stratigraphy problems from the estuarine system out to the base of slope — primarily in carbonate or mixed siliciclastic/carbonate environments. His team has defined the response of coastal and shelf depositional systems to sea-level fluctuations, climate changes, western boundary currents, antecedent topography and sediment supply.

Shevenell's research focuses on climate change, climate history, ocean temperature, ice sheet instability, marine microfossils and sea level rise history.

Research areas include paleoceanography/paleoclimate, stable isotopes, carbon cycling. His specialties include climate change, oceanography, stable isotope geochemistry, radiocarbon dating, oceanic petroleum pollution and marine ecosystems.

Barnes has been a research associate in the Optical Oceanography Lab at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science since 2015. His research focuses on assessment and monitoring of coastal systems from satellite remote sensing platforms. In particular, he is working to improve satellite derivations of water quality and benthic classification in optically shallow marine environments, including coral reefs and seagrass beds.

Research areas include fisheries biology and ecosystem and resource management. His focus areas include fisheries management, food webs, population dynamics, marine ecosystems and population modeling.

Research areas include technology applications, autonomous systems, AUVs, ROVs, sensor development, circulation measurement, harmful algal bloom evolution, fish stock analysis, habitat mapping, water column analysis, seafloor measurements and mapping.

Hapke studies global impacts of sea-level rise and increased coastal hazards from inundation, storms, and erosion. She can discuss how coastal processes and evolution are critical for understanding vulnerabilities to the various hazards in both natural and built systems. Her research focuses on the geomorphic evolution of coastal systems ranging from barrier islands to rocky coasts and estuarine systems to understand how past changes may inform what may happen in the future.

Stallings’ lab studies basic concepts in ecology to inform marine conservation and management efforts. His research focuses on estimating marine life abundance and understanding the ecological processes that shape populations and communities, especially the impacts of human activities like fishing and coastal development.

Research areas include ocean optics and optical remote sensing. Specialties include ocean color remote sensing, radiative transfer modeling, harmful algal blooms, coastal water quality and pollution.

Chambers uses satellite observations such as radar altimetry and satellite gravimetry to better understand ocean dynamics. His primary research focus is quantifying and understanding sea level variability, especially trying to separate natural climate variability from anthropogenic climate change. He studies the dynamic processes that cause sea level change, including ocean circulation, ocean heat storage, ocean mass redistribution and influx of fresh water from the continents and ice sheets.

Chappell studies marine microbial ecology, marine microbiology, phytoplankton physiology, trace metal biogeochemistry and nitrogen fixation.

Peebles studies how coastal fish and their prey interact over time and space, and how factors like freshwater flow affect estuaries and coastal ecosystems. His research uses tools such as stable isotope analysis, DNA barcoding, hydrodynamic models and otolith chemistry to track fish movement, habitat connections and exposure to environmental stressors.

Muller-Karger's research areas include changes in marine ecosystems using field-based and satellite remote sensing time series. His interests include STEM education, marine productivity and nutrients, biodiversity, pollution and ecosystems; ocean environments, climate and temperature change; and sea level change.

Mitchum is an expert on storm surge, sea level rise and hurricanes. He studies the global impacts of sea level rise and the broader connections between climate change and storms. His research includes a focus on areas including tides, ocean eddies, El Niño, tsunamis and ocean physics.

Dixon studies the role of water and carbon dioxide in the generation and evolution of basaltic magmas with an emphasis on submarine volcanoes. Her work includes solubility studies of water and carbon dioxide in basaltic melts, vapor saturation and degassing models, and modeling of volatile contents in primary magmas and the mantle. Her research has focused on the mid-ocean ridge system, Hawaii, the Galapagos and the Easter Salas y Gomez Seamount Chain.

Daly studies zooplankton ecology with the aim of understanding the physical and biological factors that control the abundance and distribution of zooplankton and the role of zooplankton in marine food webs, biogeochemical cycles and fisheries oceanography. Recent projects include lower trophic food web response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the role of marine snow in the sedimentation of Deepwater Horizon oil to the sea floor and ecosystem dynamics and predator-prey interactions in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, using the SCINI remotely operated vehicle with a variety of sensors.

Research areas include Interactions between marine microbes, microbial symbioses, phytoplankton community dynamics in coastal and open ocean systems, harmful algal blooms and extreme events.

Specialties include Microbiology, Phytoplankton ecology, Meta 'omics and Bioinformatics.

Research areas include Maritime Safety and Security, Real-Time Ocean Observation Systems, Numerical Models of Ocean Circulation and Coastal Water Quality.

Specialties include Numerical Modeling of Ocean Dynamics, Coastal and Estuarine Dynamics, Real-Time Oceanographic Observing Systems, Operational Oceanography, Maritime Transportation, Marine Ecosystems and Ocean Environment.

Breitbart is a biological oceanographer whose research interests include genomics, marine microbiology, wastewater microbiology, virology and molecular biology. She led groundbreaking research that identified the cause of the 2022 mass die-off long-spined sea urchins in the Caribbean and along Florida’s East coast.

Muller's broad research interests in marine ecosystems and ocean environments include specializations in carbonate sediments, coral reefs, shelf ecology, environmental management, micropaleontology, paleoceanography, paleoecology, bioindicators, ocean acidification, nutrition in coastal zones, foraminifera.

Rafter studies marine carbon cycling and climate from the past, present and future and the influence of greenhouse gases on climate events such as El Niño.

Weisberg is an experimental physical oceanographer who studies ocean circulation and ocean-atmosphere interaction in the tropics, on continental shelves and in estuaries. His research emphasizes the West Florida Continental Shelf circulation and interactions between the shelf and deep-ocean and the shelf and estuaries. Through his Ocean Circulation Group he coordinates real-time, in-situ measurements, analyses and numerical circulation models aimed at describing and understanding the processes that determine West Florida Continental Shelf water properties.

Murawski studies population dynamics of exploited marine species, impacts of fishing and other anthropogenic stresses on marine ecosystems and ecosystem modeling and analysis. His areas of focus include fisheries biology, marine ecology, pollution impacts and ocean mapping and undersea technologies.

Frazer is a Professor and Dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. Prior to his arrival at USF, Dr. Frazer was Director of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Florida and served also as Chief Science Officer for the State of Florida. Dr. Frazer holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fisheries Biology from Humboldt State University and a Master’s Degree in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences from the University of Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research addresses contemporary and emerging environmental issues, and is, by nature, interdisciplinary.

Conway’s research group aims to understand the geochemistry of trace metals in the marine and earth system and the role they play as micronutrients and/or toxins in marine biogeochemical cycles, with effects on the global carbon cycle. The group employs techniques including measurement of trace metal isotope ratios and concentrations in a range of materials including aerosol dust, rocks, sediments rain, seawater, ice-cores, marine particles and biological materials. The group aims to shed light on the biogeochemical cycling of trace metals in the modern ocean and is interested in developing and applying isotopic tracers as proxies for oceanic processes in the geological past.

Tang studies biogeochemistry and climate change, nitrogen isotopes, nitrogen and carbon cycling, marine productivity, greenhouse gases and machine learning.

Liu is the director of the Ocean Circulation Lab at the USF College of Marine Science. An oceanographer, he aims to better understand the coastal ocean circulation and air-sea interactions on the West Florida Shelf, including the exchanges of water properties between the estuaries, the shelf and the offshore (Loop Current) system of the Gulf of America. He can discuss ride tide forecasts, pollutant tracking, storm surge, oil spills and other issues related to our oceans.