Living Seawall
Human pressures on marine ecosystems have resulted in declines in biodiversity of marine species. An emerging solution in coastal areas are “living seawalls,” engineered concrete panels that increase the habitat complexity (spaces where organisms can live) on seawall surfaces that are traditionally smooth and featureless. These panels will serve as a living experiment to examine whether complexity can increase biodiversity of intertidal species such as the macroalgae, mussels, bryozoans, barnacles, snails, and crabs that reside on Cape Ann shores. While testing an innovative engineering approach to increase biodiversity, this experiment also demonstrates immersive student research and workforce training opportunities to spark scientific discovery.
Bringing Hands-On Science Learning to Gloucester Middle School Students
With support from the New England Biolabs Foundation, and coordination between GMS, Gloucester Education Foundation, and Gloucester Public Schools, O'Maley Science Central middle school students will monitor the Living Seawall from its first season onward, recording changes in plants and animals that live there and how they are using the innovative engineering of the living seawall. After students research the organisms that inhabit the living seawall at GMS, they will create an artistic representation of these organisms on their own small living seawall tile. The student-created model of the living seawall will be exhibited at O’Maley Middle School.
This interdisciplinary project, which integrates art, design, and creativity with scientific research concepts, will be an exciting opportunity from cross-departmental collaboration at O’Maley between science and art teachers and with UMass GMS faculty.
Marine Ecology & Physiology
Our research is driven by a fundamental curiosity in how animals are shaped by natural and anthropogenically altered environments, coupled with the desire to apply this knowledge to mitigate human impacts and inform effective ocean and coastal conservation.
We conduct integrative studies in wildlife genomics, physiology, and ecology to investigate mechanisms underlying animal performance, distributions, connectivity and adaptation in species of conservation concern and economic value. We work closely with regional, federal, and global agency partners to incorporate results into decision frameworks, helping to ensure that conservation management strategies are based on the best available science.
Exploring Emerging Fisheries Management Needs: Black Sea Bass
Black sea bass are a predatory marine fish that have been increasing in number throughout Massachusetts waters as temperatures increase. Historically, black sea bass populations have been centered in the mid-Atlantic states where research on this species has revealed much about their physiology and ecology. Yet, we know comparatively little about black sea bass in the Gulf of Maine. For example, it is thought that black sea bass undergo an annual migration appearing in Gloucester in late summer and departing for the southern waters, yet we do not know the details surrounding this great annual migration.
In partnership with the MA Division of Marine Fisheries, GMS is conducting a study on the movement of black sea bass, environmental drivers of their migration, and using genomic approaches to understand how much mixing there is among Massachusetts black sea bass (population connectivity). This information is valuable because black sea bass are an emerging fisheries species for Massachusetts fishermen. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is proposing to increase the fisheries harvest of this species in 2026. This project is funded by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Predator Prey Interactions: Understanding “Winners and Losers” of Rapid Warming in the Gulf of Maine
In nature, plants, and animals interact with other members of their community through species interactions such as competition and predation. But our understanding of how such interactions are shaped by rapidly changing environmental conditions is poor.
In a project, funded by the National Science Foundation, GMS combines physiological measures with numerical models to forecast the “winners and losers” of rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine. The project focuses on ecologically important predatory shellfish species (European green crabs, rock crabs, and American lobsters) and their bivalve prey (blue mussels).
