Knauss legislative fellowships in Congress help build careers — and they're fun and educational. See our video and fact sheet for details.
Brittany Marsden served as the inaugural Knauss Fellow in the Formulation and Congressional Analysis Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As a program analyst in budget formulation, she helped the administration to develop its research priorities, communicate the significance of NOAA research to Congress, and help scientists get the funding they need to carry out their work.
Marsden was a doctoral student in the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences Graduate Program at the University of Maryland. Her research addressed the genetic diversity and growth patterns of submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV). By better understanding these patterns, she has been able to draw conclusions about the capacity of regional SAV populations to acclimate or adapt to dramatic environmental changes. Those results could help scientists to grasp how climate change might affect the Bay's ecologically important SAV communities.
Some of Marsden's first exposure to marine ecology came from studying sponges as an undergraduate student at the University of Richmond. Before beginning graduate school, she spent a year in Maryland working in environmental education. During that time she became intimately acquainted with the Chesapeake Bay and the environmental, ecological, and economic issues facing the region. Those experiences sparked her desire to pursue an interdisciplinary career in marine conservation.
Following her fellowship, Marsden accepted a position as an analyst in NOAA OAR's Formulation and Congressional Analysis Division.
See Brittany's posts to Fellowship Experiences, Maryland Sea Grant's blog written by and about graduate fellows and their research.
Knauss legislative fellowships in Congress help build careers — and they're fun and educational. See our video and fact sheet for details.
Maryland Sea Grant has program development funds for start-up efforts, graduate student research, or strategic support for emerging areas of research. Apply here.
Smithville is a community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, on the edge of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. A century ago, Smithville had more than 100 residents. Today, it has four, in two homes: an elderly couple, and one elderly woman and her son, who cares for her.
Oyster aquaculture is a rapidly growing industry in Maryland’s Chesapeake waters which stimulates economic activity and may provide a host of ecosystem benefits. A potential concern associated with the intensification of the oyster aquaculture is the local production and accumulation of oyster biodeposits, which can lead to a porewater sulfide accumulation and declining bioturbation, symptoms of declining ecosystem function. Sulfide is naturally removed from the seafloor by the interactions between bioturbating infauna and sulfide oxidizing bacteria.
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A Growing Industry: Advancing Oyster Aquaculture in Maryland
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