  Shalonda
Poole
Gems Remote Sensing Lab
Research Assistant
(252) 335-3595
slpoole@mail.ecsu.edu
In September, Heather Allen, Angela Cahoon, Shanna Chambliss,
Emma Sawyer, Matt Woolard, and Napoleon Paxton represented
ECSU in Beaufort, North Carolina for a research effort entitled
the “Science-Based Citizen Monitoring of Salt Marsh
Restoration Sites in North Carolina”. Marine and Computer
Science and Geology students working as Research Assistants
in the Department of Geological, Environmental and Marine
Science (GEMS), have a contract with the NOAA Center for Coastal
Fisheries and Habitat Research to assist them with the deployment
of fyke nets and collection of sediment samples from marsh
restoration sites in Carteret County, North Carolina. They
have several tasks they must complete in the next several
months. During their trip in September they successfully completed
the deployment of fyke nets. Their main objectives on this
field trip were to evaluate tidal salt marsh restoration efforts
by collecting data on faunal utilization of the marsh as an
indicator of habitat quality, to get “hands on”
experience with the fisheries sampling techniques and marine
fisheries habitat research, and to learn how to fish a fyke
net; collect, enumerate, identify and measure estuarine finfish,
shellfish and decapod crustaceans; compile and summarize fisheries
and environmental data on data sheets. The students visited
the Duke Marine Lab, were trained in salt marsh vegetation
sampling methods, listened to a presentation on the NOAA salt
marsh restoration project, and they did an enormous amount
of lab research while on their trip. Funding for the trip
was provided through Dr. Hayden and NOAA’s Environmental
Entrepreneurship Program.
Mrs. Liz Noble, Project Coordinator for the GEMS Remote Sensing
Lab and Dr. Kathleen Fischer, Marine Science Faculty, coordinated
this research effort with NOAA researchers Dr. Carolyn Currin
and Priscilla Delano. The Remote Sensing Lab has ten ECSU
undergraduate Research Assistants this semester working on
the NOAA Environmental Entrepreneurship Project to provide
implementation support to the North Carolina Coastal Habitat
Protection Plan through directed research and remote sensing. |
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