Jonah Morreale (Ph.D. Student) – As a PhD student in the Peterson Lab, my work focuses on the patchy eelgrass beds in the bays of Long Island’s south shore, and the invertebrate communities that use them as habitat. My current work has two distinct focuses: (1) the ability of these patchy seagrass beds to sequester carbon long-term, and (2) the movement of crabs within and between these fragmented patches – or “blue crabs and blue carbs”.
After getting my BS in Marine Biology from Cornell University in 2017 (and a short stint working with salmon in Alaska), I spent several years working as a research tech and boat captain for the Virginia Coast Reserve LTER. The systems there contained barrier islands and shallow eelgrass bays very similar to our own here on Long Island, and I got great experience incorporating GIS components with long-term surveys of the marine community. Now, in the summer I can usually be found on in a bay amidst the seagrass of Long Island!