ECSU GEMS
ECSU GEMS

NOAA
ECSUShalonda 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.


ECSU at Beaufort
ECSU at Beaufort
ECSU at Beaufort
ECSU at Beaufort
ECSU at Beaufort
ECSU at Beaufort