College of Science & Mathematics
Master of Marine & Environmental Science
MMES Master of Science students are required to produce a masters thesis based on
original research conducted in the second year of their studies. Students work closely
with faculty in the MMES program and faculty and staff in the Center for Marine and
Environmental Studies (CMES) to develop their thesis research projects. They also
have the opportunity to contribute to ongoing research programs, including the Virgin
Islands Territorial Coral Reef Monitoring Program and the National Coral Reef Monitoring
Program. Below is a general list of research areas and associated faculty who serve
as advisors in the MMES program.
Faculty Research Areas
- Sandy Beach Ecology
- Sandy beaches make up one-third of the world's coastlines and provide key ecosystem
services such as shoreline protection, food provision, and recreation. They also host
diverse and exclusive assemblages with a rate of endemism sometimes greater than those
recorded for highly diverse ecosystems such as coral reefs. The importance of sandy
beaches is perhaps most striking in the Caribbean, where environments with crystal-clear
waters and bright white sand serve as popular attractions for visitors and are the
primary economic engine for most islands in the region. Unfortunately, sandy beaches
are largely overlooked and under increasing pressure, trapped between the impacts
of climate change and human activities in the terrestrial and marine environment.
To mitigate these impacts, improve management practices, and preserve the ecological
functions and services of sandy beaches, UVI's researchers work to understand these
ecosystems considering their physical, social, and biological features. Research areas
include the effects of human use and climate change on the beach environment and biodiversity,
indicator species, and functional ecology.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Coral Reef Ecology
- UVI faculty focus on many aspects of coral reef ecology, including understanding the
dynamics between macroalgae and herbivory, coral bleaching and disease, and the impacts
of poor water quality and invasive species on coral reef health. This work includes
international collaborations with study sites in Bermuda, Panama, Galapagos, and Curacao.
Research projects typically include extensive fieldwork and/or manipulative experiments
in the field or running seawater tables.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Mesophotic Coral Reefs
- A major focus of UVI marine research is on better understanding mesophotic coral ecosystems.
Mesophotic coral ecosystems are deeper coral reefs that form between 30 - 100 m. They
are extensive in the US Virgin Islands and support some of the most ecologically productive
habitats in the territory. They often have a high coral cover (>20%) and are the sites
of reef fish spawning aggregations. CMES researchers' work to understand mesophotic
reefs has included international collaborations at sites in Montserrat and Curacao.
Work on spawning aggregations is also conducted with international partners in Puerto
Rico, Bermuda, Fiji, and Micronesia. UVI's scientific diving program supports technical
diving that allows access to these environments, and many MMES students have focused
their thesis research on these habitats.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Ciguatera Fish Poisoning
- Ciguatera fish poisoning is a food-borne illness caused by the consumption of fish
that contain ciguatera toxins (CTXs). Typically, ciguatera fish poisoning symptoms
include gastrointestinal and neurological effects. Ciguatera toxins are secondary
metabolites produced by marine dinoflagellates, more specifically, of the genus Gambierdiscus.
Research at UVI focuses on understanding the ecological underpinnings to the spatial
distribution of fish highly concentrated with CTXs. Another focus of our work is determining the levels of CTXs found in lionfish tissue
and determining the spatial distribution of CTXs concentrations found in lionfish
extracted from the waters of the US Virgin Islands.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Physical and Coastal Oceanography
- The Oceanography program at UVI focuses on understanding the physical processes and
environmental variability in coastal and pelagic ecosystems in tropical and subtropical
regions, focusing on the waters surrounding the USVI and PR. Our research spans the
fields of fisheries oceanography, ocean observing, marine remote sensing, and coastal
ocean modeling. Our research involves: Use of UVI Ocean Gliders to acquire regional
data supporting studies of ocean dynamics and impacts on climate and ecosystems; The
development and analysis of data products from satellite, airborne, shipboard, and
in-situ oceanographic sensors to understand large marine ecosystems at synoptic spatial
and longer temporal scales; The development and management of an ocean observing system
for the USVI in collaboration with the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS);
The use of time-series data and regional circulation models to understand the influence
of oceanographic conditions and a changing climate on the abundance and distribution
of a variety of marine organisms, including Sargassum spp. All of this data and research
are useful not only within the research community but also to many different stakeholders,
so the focus includes distributing and disseminating our research through community
outreach.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Watershed Ecology and Blue Carbon
- Land-sea processes are critically linked in small island ecosystems. Watershed studies
at UVI focus on studying the fundamental dynamics (hydrological, ecological, biophysical,
and socio-economic) that influence ecosystem health under changing anthropogenic and
climatic conditions. Past studies include work to understand contaminants and groundwater
hydrology surrounding Bovoni Landfill, impacts from significant rain events and cruise
ship plumes on nearshore water quality and benthic habitats, and community education
and outreach to reduce land-based sources of marine debris. Work in this area also
focuses on “blue carbon,” the carbon sequestered and stored in coastal wetlands (mangroves
and tidal marshes) and seagrass meadows. Much of this work is the first-of-it-kind
for the USVI.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Terrestrial Wildlife
- Terrestrial Wildlife studies at UVI focus on expanding the understanding of native
and introduced species for more effective management of wildlife communities and their
habitats. Areas of interest include habitat use, distribution, and population structure
of species of concern, including those that are rare and/or endangered, plus impacts
of invasives, using fieldwork and bioacoustics. Community outreach is a vital component
of this work, and Citizen Science projects are developed to enhance community involvement
and expanding coverage of data collection. Research is being conducted on local species
of bats, frogs, and reptiles.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Seagrass Ecology
- Of the approximately sixty species of seagrass, two are known to invade extant seagrass
meadows from their native location: Zostera japonica (Pacific Coast of North America) and Halophila stipulacea (the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas). A synthesis of Z. japonica research effort (Mach, Wyllie-Echeverria, and Chan, 2015) reports that studies designed
to evaluate ecosystem impacts of the invasion (n = 53) yield mixed results. In other
words, the invasion was not totally negative. Limited investigation of the H. stipulacea invasion limits analysis of this invasion into Caribbean waters. The primary focus
of research at CMES is to evaluate the invasion impact on the native seagrasses in
the U.S. Virgin Islands and the ecosystem services they provide.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Sea Turtle Research
- Three species of sea turtles regularly inhabit the waters of the Virgin Islands.
Leatherback sea turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, are the most pelagic of the three species but come back to Sandy Point on St Croix
to nest after spending most of their time in the mid and northern Atlantic. Green
sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, nest predominantly on St Croix in the middle to late summer, while hawksbill sea
turtles, Eretmochelys imbricate, nest on all three islands. Index nesting beaches for the three species are only
found on St Croix, but many St Thomas and St John's bays are considered critical juvenile
habitats for hawksbill and green sea turtles. Sea turtle research has included work
with all three species and has been primarily focused on the movement and habitat
selection of green and hawksbill sea turtles in the bays of St Thomas. MMES students
have completed internships at Sandy Point St Croix and the National Park on St John.
Other interests include the effects of climate change and sea level rise on sea turtle
populations. The inclusion of graduate and undergraduate students in sea turtle research
at UVI has been consistent since the arrival of Dr. Paul Jobsis in 2006.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Population Genetics
- Faculty in this area include:
- Environmental Restoration
- Environmental restoration at UVI primarily focuses on coral reefs, seagrass, beach,
mangrove habitats, and species associated with these ecosystems.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Marine Parasites
- Parasitic organisms comprise over half the biodiversity in coral reef systems, yet
parasites are typically ignored in ecological studies of coral reef systems. Our research
focuses on multiple aspects of the interaction between tropical marine parasites and
micro-predators and their hosts. These include cleaning symbioses and the effects
of parasites on host behavior, the role of parasites in coral reef food webs, the
role of parasites in recruitment success of fishes, transmission dynamics of apicomplexan
blood parasites, and integrating parasite surveys into long-term ecological monitoring.
Our research team collaborates with other CMES research teams (e.g., Coral Reef Ecology,
Mesophotic Reef Ecology, and Reef Fish Ecology) and research teams from other countries
such as Australia, South Africa, and the Philippines.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Marine Chemistry and Bioluminescence
- Bioluminescence in the waters of Mangrove Lagoon has become an ecotourism attraction
for St. Croix. The vibrant displays of light are created by an abundance of the bioluminescent
dinoflagellate. Our focus is to understand the relationship between water quality
and the dinoflagellate populations in the bay.
- Antioxidants appear to be related to preventing degenerative illnesses, such as cancer,
cardiovascular, and neurological diseases, cataracts and oxidative stress dysfunctions.
We are interested in determining the level of antioxidants in algae in the Virgin
Islands.
- Faculty in this area include:
- Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Human Dimensions
- Faculty in this area include:
- Ecosystem Modeling
- Faculty in this area include:
- Reef Fish Ecology
- Research on reef fish ecology covers a broad range of topics including movement ecology,
the effectiveness of marine protected areas, fish recruitment dynamics, and the impact
of invasive species (lionfish and Halophila seagrass) on juvenile fish demographics.
Movement ecology, using acoustic telemetry, focuses on the spatial and temporal patterns
of movement of a variety of species that form spawning aggregations, and the influence
of environmental change on fish behavior. Faculty are also collaborating with fishery
scientists to collect baseline data on population characteristics of commercially
important species to improve the management of fish stocks.
- Faculty in this area include:
