The North Carolina Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve is excited to welcome NOAA Margaret A. Davidson Fellowship recipient Mina Surprenant, a PhD student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Through this fellowship, Mina will integrate drone technology with computational models to evaluate salt marsh responses to sea-level rise. This fellowship will enhance her dissertation by providing an additional dimension for predicting how marshes adapt to changing sea levels.
A major consequence of sea-level rise and coastal development is the reduction in marsh ecosystem services to coastal communities. To develop effective conservation efforts, there must be a better understanding of how marsh conditions will change over time. To predict these changes, monitoring efforts are required. However, monitoring efforts are often short-lived, and challenging due to the labor-intensive field work.
Since 2010, Reserve staff have collected salt marsh vegetation data at reserve sites, contributing valuable information for predictive modeling to assess the future of these marshes in response to rising sea levels. While these long-term monitoring efforts have provided critical insights, the frequency of data collection has shifted from annual to at least once every five years to minimize the trampling and damage caused during fieldwork.
Mina’s research will explore the use of Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones) so that annual monitoring can resume without the labor-intensive and potentially harmful effects of traditional sampling. The objective of Mina's research is to evaluate how high-resolution drone imagery can capture vegetation data, reducing the need for on-the-ground sampling. This will also make data collection more cost effective. Additionally, these data can be incorporated into computational models, like marsh productivity and resilience models, to better predict ecological changes in these reserve sites over time.
Her research will provide a new method that can be adopted by other reserves seeking to implement or enhance similar monitoring efforts. It will facilitate the development of annual marsh surveys, providing critical information to managers about the impacts of climate change on these ecosystems, and make them more feasible due to reduced labor intensity. Additionally, by engaging coastal managers and stakeholders throughout the research, her work will offer more effective, actionable solutions for protection and restoration within reserve sites and beyond.
She also plans to translate her research into an education tool that demonstrates the effect of sea-level rise. She will provide hands-on experience and instruction for K-12 students attending programs led by the MarineQuest program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
“As a former MarineQuest instructor, I recognize the value of hands-on experiences in fostering a connection between students and their environment. Sharing this research with UNC Wilmington undergraduate students, will introduce fresh ideas and inspire those interested in pursuing research.” - Mina
About Mina Suprenant
Mina is a PhD student in the Integrative, Comparative, and Marine Biology Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She holds a B.S. in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina and a M.S. in Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. As an undergraduate, she seized multiple research opportunities and collaborated with local conservation groups both domestically and internationally. Her master's research focused on ascidian (sea squirt) abundance and diversity in seagrass meadows under the guidance of Drs. Susanna Lopez-Legentil and Jessie Jarvis. Throughout her graduate career, she has engaged with K-12 students through various programs, teaching them about the skills necessary to understand and protect coastal ecosystems, both in Wilmington and statewide. In her dissertation research, she collaborates regularly with coastal managers and stakeholders to raise awareness about the impacts of marsh loss due to rising sea levels.
About the Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship Program
The Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship provides funding to graduate students to conduct estuarine research within one of the 30 reserves in NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System. Fellows address a key coastal management question to help scientists and communities understand coastal challenges that may influence future policy and management strategies.
Each fellow develops a meaningful cross-discipline research project in conjunction with scientists, community leaders, and other organizations. They engage in networking opportunities with fellows at other reserves, plus other professionals across the reserve system, NOAA, and community partners. Davidson Fellows receive professional guidance and mentoring in a variety of disciplines, including facilitation and communication, and they facilitate the development of research partnerships between universities and the Reserve.
Honoring the legacy of leadership and service to coastal communities modeled by Margaret Adelia Davidson in her over 30 years at NOAA, the overarching goal of the Davidson Graduate Fellowship program is to help train the next generation of coastal managers.