For this project I led a diverse team of scientists from a federal agency (NOAA), consulting company (Dynamic Solutions), universities (LSU, ULL), and non-profit (Water Institute) to identify and summarize information about lower trophic level information in Barataria Estuary to help inform a monitoring program and improve food web models. These lower tropic levels are the lowest part of the food web where organisms such as plant-like phytoplankton serve as food to animals such as zooplankton in the water column. Other organisms of lower trophic levels include plant-like microphytobenthos and marine worms living within the sediments. These organisms provide energy at the base of the food chain and support the growth of larger predators at the top, such as speckled trout or red fish.

More information can be found here.