Eelgrass Restoration in Rhode Island
Narragansett, R.I. — September 12, 2001 — The public is invited to attend a free Science for Breakfast Lecture, sponsored by Friends of Oceanography, to be held on Thursday, September 27, at 9 a.m. in the Coastal Institute Building on the URI Bay Campus. The lecture is part of a series featuring the research of URI Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) students.
The September 27 lecture, “Eelgrass Restoration in Rhode Island: The Complexities and Challenges of Farming Underwater,” will be presented by biological oceanography doctoral degree candidate Lora Harris of Bristol.
Harris will explain what eelgrass habitat is and why it is the focus of restoration efforts, as well as what the GSO research community is adding to this growing field of restoration science. After giving a brief overview of habitat use and loss and current projects in Narragansett Bay, the audience will visit the Durbin Aquarium Building on the Bay Campus to see live eelgrass and eelgrass seeds and the technology being used in these efforts.
Harris, a native of Brooklyn, New York, received her B.A. in biological sciences from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Under the guidance of her major professor, Dr. Scott Nixon, she works at the Sea Grant-funded lagoon mesocosm facility at the Bay Campus performing predator-prey interaction studies examining the function of eelgrass as habitat.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Coffee and muffins will be served. For more information, call Friends of Oceanography at (401) 874-6602.
Friends of Oceanography is a community-based membership organization established in 1986 to support the educational and public programs of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. Friends provides financial support of fellowships for GSO students, and other research, education, and outreach activities. The organization also helps sponsor a variety of special events such as oceanography lecture series, open houses at the Bay Campus, The JASON Project, and the National Ocean Sciences Bowl.
Contact:Lisa Cugini, 874-6642, lcugini@gsosun1.gso.uri.edu