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Zooplankton Ecology

The Zooplankton Ecology lab is a research unit of the Department of Biological Sciences at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Zooplankton

Our research interests are in zooplankton ecology and physiology, coastal and deep-sea food webs, nutrient cycling, and marine detritus or "marine snow." Much of our current focus is on how zooplankton community structure affects flux of organic material and cycling of nutrients in the sea.

Our laboratory is involved in a number of projects with this theme, including the

  • role of zooplankton vertical migration in transport of nutrients,
  • ecology of gelatinous zooplankton "blooms" and their effect on fluxes of organic matter,
  • importance of zooplankton in the cycling of dissolved organic matter, mesopelagic zooplankton and particle flux, and
  • effects of mesoscale eddies on zooplankton community structure.

We work in a number of marine environments including Antarctica, the Amazon Plume, Bermuda and the Sargasso Sea, the subtropical and North Pacific,  and Chesapeake Bay.

Contact Us
Zooplankton Ecology Laboratory
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Gloucester Point, VA 23062
804-684-7838