Stephen Heck (Ph.D. Candidate) – I am a Ph.D. student working in the Peterson Lab. I am interested in investigating how anthropogenic activities drive changes in coastal marine ecosystems in order to understand how to best mitigate those impacts. Previously, I have been involved in benthic ecology research surrounding bay scallop restoration efforts in Nantucket, MA. I have also worked on a project using genetics to investigate the population dynamics of sea scallops on the Eastern seaboard. Over the past several years I have become increasingly interested in how habitat characteristics and transient predators influence the structure of seagrass communities.