an international journal - florida state university · 2017. 3. 7. · 1954, humm left fsu...

Published by the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium of Alabama

An International Journal

Evolution of the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory

MICHAEL J. GREENBERG, WILLIAM F. HERRNKIND, AND FELICIA C. COLEMAN

Evolution of the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory

MICHAEL J. GREENBERG, WILLIAM F. HERRNKIND, AND FELICIA C. COLEMAN

SIXTY YEARS OF HISTORY

In 1949, just 2 yr after the Florida State Collegefor Women was transformed into a coeduca-

tional institution—The Florida State University(FSU)—marine science gained a permanentfoothold on the Tallahassee campus with theformation of The Oceanographic Institute (OI).This institute—within the College of Arts andSciences—was meant to train graduate studentsin marine science, to provide marine researchfacilities for faculty and students and visitinginvestigators, to conduct interdisciplinary basicresearch in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, andalso to conduct applied research directed towardimproving Florida’s fishing industry and devel-oping other marine resources.

At first, the OI had three remote marinefacilities, but two of them—a station at Mayporton the St. Johns River and another on Mullet Keyat the mouth of Tampa Bay—were closedsometime after 1955. The remaining facility,sited on 25 acres of the peninsula that constitutesthe southern shore of Alligator Harbor, about45 miles south of Tallahassee, became FSU’soperative marine laboratory (Fig. 1). The struc-tures constituting this Alligator Harbor Labora-tory were built to accommodate Harold Humm,the first director of the OI. The main laboratorybuilding consisted of a room provided withseawater for research and classes, and a roomof research cubicles. Other structures included aresidence for faculty and visitors, a boathouse–shop, large concrete seawater tanks for keepingmarine animals, a large pool (21.3 3 15.2 m, 2.1-m deep) constructed in 1954 to keep porpoisesfor W. N. Kellogg, and a 100-m concrete pier fordocking small boats. The laboratory’s fleetincluded five power boats (6.7 to 11.6 m) andseveral skiffs.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, research atthe Alligator Harbor Laboratory was substantial.But in 1966, under the direction of CarlOppenheimer, FSU replaced the OI with aDepartment of Oceanography; the AlligatorPoint Laboratory was closed, and a new facilitywas built across the harbor, just west of St. Teresanear Turkey Point (Fig. 1). Because Ed Ball,President of the St. Joe Paper Company, donatedsome of the land to FSU, the new facility wasofficially designated as the Edward Ball MarineLaboratory. This name, however, was rarely used,

and the toponym Turkey Point Laboratory or,more often, the FSU Marine Laboratory(FSUML) stuck for more than 4 decades.

In 2006, Felicia Coleman became the 13thdirector of the Laboratory. She is the firstdirector whose primary workplace is at thelaboratory, and the first with an on-site facultyto manage. And the laboratory became the FSUCoastal and Marine Laboratory (FSUCML).

The history of these two laboratories, whichfollows, is narrated primarily by three of the 13directors. We have divided the narrative into fourdistinct periods: The Genesis, 15 yr at AlligatorHarbor; The Great Move from Alligator Harborto Turkey Point, 7 yr of change; The LongStruggle at Turkey Point, 34 yr of intermittent,slow increases in activity; and finally, TheAwakening, 4 yr of exploding activity. Wedescribe these periods, revealing how this longexperiment finally succeeds.

The backbone of our narrative is a series ofvignettes describing the backgrounds and activ-ities of each of the 13 directors. References toearlier and later vignettes provides cohesion andcontinuity. But we have also interspersed, withinthe backbone, sketches about the activities ofstudents, faculty, and visiting investigators, andabout educational and outreach programs. In away, then, this narrative is a mosaic. The sketchesare in the first person, except when an individualis deceased, aged, distant, or prefers the thirdperson omniscient narrator.

THE GENESIS (1949–1964)

The natural surroundings at Alligator Harbor.—Alligator Harbor proved an enormously produc-tive backyard for researchers. It was then andremains today a narrow, shallow bay (roughly 6.43 1.6 km; depth 1.8 m, except for a centralbasin); the southern flank of the harbor is a thinpeninsula (Alligator Point). No freshwaterstreams flow into the harbor, and rainfall doesnot exceed evaporation, so the salinity is thesame as that in the gulf. A great attraction of thelaboratory at this site was its access by skiff toBaymouth Bar (Fig. 1), a sandbar that almostcompletely closes the mouth of the harbor. Atlow tides, Baymouth Bar is exposed—revealingan expanse of sand, with seagrass around its edgeand on its flanks. It is home to an extraordinarilywide diversity of marine invertebrates that were

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objects of research and teaching at the FSUMLor on the campus in Tallahassee. Well into the1960s, the Point and the Bar were separated by adeep channel, which closed sometime in the1970s. And at about the same time, the propertyat the tip of Alligator Point was donated to theNature Conservancy, which closed it to vehicularand pedestrian traffic. Further below, we willdescribe some of the more important researchinitiatives undertaken in this remarkable loca-tion.

THE DIRECTORS: HUMM, MEYER, FOX, METZ,AND COLLIER

Harold Judson Humm.—(Director 1949–1954),Ph.D., Duke University (1942): Areas of exper-tise: general natural history, algae, marinemicrobiology (bacteria and archaea), develop-ment of marketable products from marine algae.

In the course of his career, Harold JudsonHumm became—three times, and for threedifferent institutions—the first director of amarine laboratory. The first instance was atDuke, where, after receiving his doctorate inbotany, he was appointed Resident Investigatorat the marine laboratory in Beaufort, NC. In1948, he was appointed the first ResidentDirector of the Duke Marine Laboratory, and ayear thereafter (1949) he came to FSU to be thefounding director of the newly established OIand its Alligator Harbor Laboratory, which wassoon under construction.

In 1950, Humm reported to a NationalResearch Council committee on work conductedat the Alligator Harbor Lab: composition of achecklist of the common species of animals inApalachee Bay (Fig. 1),1 and the distribution ofmarine algae in the region; the ecology ofintertidal annelids on several types of beaches;and a study of the physical properties of the agaror agaroids available from several species ofseaweed that were abundant in the region. Theseglutagenous substances are used globally asculture media in medicine and microbiology,and Humm already had a patent on a methodfor extracting the gels. By the early 1960s, muchof this work was completed and published. In1954, Humm left FSU precipitously, and re-turned to Duke.

Years later, in 1967, Humm became thefounding director of the Institute of MarineScience at the University of South Florida (USF),St. Petersburg, where he died in 2001. Hummwas known to his students at USF as anexemplary teacher and as ‘‘the last of the great

naturalists’’; indeed, at least 11 species of marinealgae, diatoms, and invertebrates were namedafter him.

Samuel L. Meyer.—(Director 1954–1955), Ph.D.,University of Virginia, Charlottesville (1940):Areas of expertise: bryology, academic adminis-tration.

Samuel Meyer began to study the physiology ofmosses while he was a graduate student at theUniversity of Virginia, and continued this line ofresearch for 8 yr at the University of Tennessee,publishing some 10 papers on the subject. Hiswork at Tennessee was interrupted by stints inthe U.S. Army and at Emory University, andwhen he returned to Nashville, it was as Professorand Chairman of the Department of Botany—the same rank and position that he was to hold atFSU when he moved there in 1951.

In 1954, when Humm resigned, Meyer becamedirector of the OI, while the search for a newdirector went forward. He took seriously theresponsibility to ‘‘include all relevant disciplines’’in his administration; his staff of 19 facultyrepresented 11 departments, seven of themdistinctly nonbiological. During his year of service,Meyer completed the construction of the porpoisepools at the Alligator Harbor Laboratory, and heand Robert H. Williams, a Professor of MarineScience, wrote and published a detailed, illustrat-ed, and historically useful description of theAlligator Harbor Laboratory’s earliest years.

Meyer left FSU in 1955 to become Dean atCentral Methodist College (now Central Meth-odist University) in Fayette, MO, where he hadreceived his A.B. degree. In 1965, he becamepresident of Ohio Northern University, in Ada,where he oversaw a 12-yr period of strikingacademic and physical growth. Widely honored,he became President emeritus in 1977, retired toLexington, KY, and died there in 2000. Facultyand students from Ohio Northern Universitycontinue to visit the FSUCML today.

Sydney W. Fox—(Director 1955–1961), Ph.D., Cal-ifornia Institute of Technology (1940): Areas ofexpertise: protein chemistry, spontaneous forma-tion of protein microstructures, origin of life.

Fox studied chemistry at the University ofCalifornia at Los Angeles, and was guided todoctoral study at the California Institute ofTechnology (Cal Tech) by Linus Pauling, withwhom he worked as a postdoctoral associate. In1955, after various commercial positions and aperiod of fundamental research on proteinchemistry at Iowa State College (Ames), Foxcame to FSU to direct the OI. He remained atthe OI until 1961, when, encouraged by the1 Updated in 1956 by R. Winston Menzel.

GREENBERG ET AL.— EVOLUTION OF THE FSUCML 151

National Aeronautics and Space Adminstration(NASA), he became Director of the Institute ofSpace Bioscience at FSU.

It was while he directed the OI, however, thatFox started his groundbreaking work on theorigin of life. In seminal experiments, he ther-mally activated amino acids to produce protein-oids (thermal proteins). He then showed that,when these proteins were mixed in water, theyspontaneously self-organized into microspheres.The formation of these structures and theirresemblance to primitive cells suggested a processby which life might have originated. This excitingwork redounded to the reputations of the OI andFSU, but Fox’s concerns could not have stretchedto include the Alligator Harbor Marine Laborato-ry. Fortunately, however, there was Charles Metz.

Charles B. Metz.—(Associate Director 1955–1961),Ph.D., California Institute of Technology (1942):Areas of expertise: fertilization, gamete physiol-ogy, biochemical interactions of eggs and sperm,cell–cell recognition.

Metz’s doctoral research at Cal Tech was on thebiochemical interactions of eggs and spermduring fertilization. And it was fertilization—aswell as the underlying general mechanism of cell–cell recognition—that remained the focus of hisresearch throughout his career. In 1953, aftercompleting his education and four brief facultypositions, Metz came to the Department ofZoology2 at FSU and set up his laboratory in anold barracks about 3 miles from campus. Within ayear or two, he had attracted a few graduatestudents, one of whom was Mike Greenberg (yournarrator). Consistently, at low tides, Metz and hisstudents would drive down to the Alligator HarborLaboratory, get into Metz’s boat, and run toBaymouth Bar to collect sea urchins—the sourceof gametes, which were the basis of their research.

When Fox arrived in 1955 to direct the OI,Metz became Associate Director in charge of theAlligator Harbor Laboratory. It was a goodchoice: Metz was the most consistent user ofthe facility. Moreover, he was familiar withmarine labs in general, having spent summers,since childhood, at the Marine Biological Labo-ratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, where he became amember of the MBL corporation, and an MBLTrustee. He was also enthusiastic about naturalhistory, fishing, and boating.

In 1961, when Fox started the new SpaceInstitute, Metz joined him, leaving the OI andthe Alligator Harbor Lab without direction.

Then, in 1964, Metz and Fox both moved tothe University of Miami to found an Institute ofMolecular and Cellular Evolution. Metz stayedon in Miami as a Professor of Zoology until heretired. But Fox, in 1989, moved as a Distin-guished Professor, first to Southern IllinoisUniversity, and then to the University of South-ern Alabama, where he retired.

Albert Collier.—(Director 1962–1964), M.S., RiceUniversity (1933): Areas of expertise: chemicaloceanography, diatom and dinoflagellate nutri-tion, oyster feeding.

Collier’s scientific and administrative abilitieswere already firmly established when he came toFlorida from Texas. After finishing his educa-tion, he had worked for various agencies,including the National Marine Fisheries Serviceand the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Histhorough study of dissolved carbohydrates inseawater and their effects on oyster feeding,published in 1950, is still cited.

In 1946, several oil companies were sued byLouisiana oystermen, who complained thatpolluted water released during the productionof petroleum had caused unusually large lossesof market-sized oysters. Collier was one of the keyresearchers who concluded, eventually, that hightemperatures and high salinity, caused bydrought, had made the oysters vulnerable to aparasitic protozoan that they called Dermocysti-dium marinum, but which is now known asPerkinsus marinus, named after F. O. Perkins(incidentally, a graduate student of WinstonMenzel, the seventh Director.)

From 1957 to 1962, Collier helped build theTexas A&M University Marine Laboratory at FortCrocket, an old barracks in Galveston. He thenhelped the university to locate the Texas StateMaritime Academy in that same building. In 1962,just as the academy opened, Collier moved to FSUto become director of the OI, and in 1963, heinitiated a doctoral degree program in the institute.

Collier, in a 1963 assessment of the AlligatorHarbor Laboratory, notes that research wasongoing in neurophysiology (Dexter M. Easton),mariculture (R. Winston Menzel), diatom anddinoflagellate nutrition (Albert Collier, himself),embryology (Charles Metz), and taxonomy(Henry Kritzler).3 He also mentioned that‘‘…the Laboratory has served principally as asummer teaching installation,’’ and although wecannot be sure who taught those courses, weassume that Collier might well have participated,on the basis of his interest in education.

3 The names in parentheses were added by the authors; but only

Kritzler is in doubt.

2 In 1956, the Departments of Bacteriology, Botany, Physiology,

and Zoology were integrated into a single Department of

Biological Science.


In the 1970s, at the Turkey Point Laboratory,Collier offered the first residence course evertaught at the coast. The students stayed in thedorms, and Collier rented a house in St. TeresaBeach because the lab superintendent, DonPhillips, was living in the Director’s house.Collier taught all of the topics in marine biology,but also recruited other faculty to give lecturesand to come on field trips (including WFH andMJG). Toward the end of the 1970s, there was anintense but brief flowering of residence educa-tion, which is described later.

In 1964, Collier left the directorship for theDepartment of Biological Science. He served asassociate chair for undergraduate studies, andon thesis committees of graduate students withinterests in diatoms, oyster gills, and photosyn-thesis. And in about 1970, he wrote the openingoverview chapter—Oceans and coastal waters as life-supporting environments—of Otto Kinne’s five-volume treatise ‘‘Marine Ecology.’’

Collier was a renaissance man, often hostinginformal eclectic gatherings of artists, scientists,faculty, and students to discuss scientific andsocietal issues. Moreover, he was an accom-plished award-winning artist, especially afterretiring to Arizona in the 1980s. He painted inoils, but became an early experimenter incomputer art well into his 80s. While a VisitingScholar at the University of Arizona, he illustrat-ed a field guide to the common tide poolinvertebrates of the northern Gulf of California.

RESEARCH AT THE ALLIGATOR HARBOR LABORATORY

Winthrop N. Kellogg.—(1949–1961) (Ph.D., Colum-bia, 1929), an Indiana University psychologist,although well known for his studies of condition-ing in animals, was even better known for rearinghis child with an infant chimpanzee for 9 mo todetermine the relative effects of nurture andgenetics on development. The resulting book—‘‘The Ape and the Child’’—by Kellogg and hiswife, Luella Kellogg, appeared in 1933. In 1950,after 20 yr at Indiana University, Kellogg acceptedan offer from FSU to be a Professor of Psychologybecause, as Howard Baker, an FSU psychologist,reported: ‘‘B. F. Skinner had been made depart-ment head [at Indiana] instead of him…He wasthrough with research, which he concluded hadgot him nowhere, and he was just going to teachand go sailing.’’

Indeed, Kellogg did go sailing in the Gulf ofMexico, but there he became fascinated withporpoises and initiated a study of echolocation—‘‘this complex avenue of audioperception’’—whereby the animals navigate, avoid obstacles,and find their food in the ocean, even at night or

in turbid water, and at 12–15 miles per hour. Hecontacted the Alligator Harbor Lab—then beingdeveloped—about facilities for his project. BothHumm and Meyer were supportive, and con-structed a large holding tank for porpoises onthe site. Kellogg also found support with the U.S.Navy Mine Defense Center in Panama City,which lent him specialized equipment formeasuring and analyzing sound. The research,which began in 1951, resulted in an article inScience by 1952 (the first of many), and anotherbook, ‘‘Porpoises and Sonar,’’ in 1961. ‘‘Need-less to say,’’ Kellogg recalled, ‘‘it was all a greatdeal of fun.’’ And he retired shortly thereafter.

Robert B. Short.—(Ph.D., University of Michigan,1950) came directly to FSU from Michigan aftercompleting his doctorate. He accepted a position asan Assistant Professor of Zoology, stayed for 40 yr,retired in 1990, and passed away in 2007. Short was adistinguished parasitologist with interests in trema-tode systematics, life cycles, and sensory structures;chromosomes and sex determination in bloodflukes; and dicyemid Mesozoa (parasites of inverte-brates). Although his primary research was carriedout on campus, he trained many of his students atthe Alligator Harbor Laboratory.

The training procedure, as described by Short,involved a drive with his students from town to thecoast, during which they collected (as available)birds, fish, snails, or even fresh road kill in theirquest for parasites. When they had enoughmaterial, they would drive it to the marine lab,remove any parasites found in the intestines,heart, and other organs, and identify and studythem microscopically. They often found newspecies that they subsequently described in theliterature. It is not surprising that when BobPaine—then a graduate student at the Universityof Michigan and a visitor at the Marine Lab—found metacercariae infecting the brachiopodsthat he was studying, they were identified asgymnophalline trematodes by Bob Short.

Dexter M. Easton.—(Ph.D., Harvard University,1947) was a neurobiologist in the FSU Depart-ment of Biological Science from 1955 until 2005.He was interested in teaching and had designedequipment that would allow students to makesimple observations of electrical potentials. Fromat least the late 1950s to mid-1960s, he wouldtake his class to the Alligator Harbor Laboratoryand teach them how to record from excitabletissue. Easton also carried out research on themorphology and physiology of fish brains at theAlligator Harbor Laboratory; he had a house onthe beach very near the lab, so his family couldcome with him while he worked. In the summer


of 1961, Jack Rudloe—just out of Leon HighSchool—was hired by Easton to collect stripedburrfish and bat fish. Rudloe grew up to be amarine biologist in Panacea, FL, co-ManagingDirector (with his wife Anne) of the GulfSpecimen Marine Laboratory there, and a well-known nature writer.

The Illinois Excursions (MJG narrates).—CharlesMetz directed my Master’s research on thechemical and physiological properties of fertili-zin, a component of the jelly coat on the surfaceof sea urchin eggs. In 1955, I graduated fromFSU, and went to Harvard, where my doctoralstudies were on the pharmacology of serotoninon quahog hearts. In the course of this work, Ibecame interested in how the effects of trans-mitters on bivalve cardiac muscle would vary withspecies, and whether the pattern of variationwould be predictable. So I began to study thosequestions in 1958, when I joined the zoologyfaculty at the University of Illinois.

Although Illinois has plenty of freshwaterclams, they are difficult to identify, and the heartsare difficult to work with. In 1959, therefore, Iarranged with Metz to visit the Alligator HarborLab for a week in mid-April; I aimed, simply, todetermine the diversity of bivalves on BaymouthBar and to test the experimental effectiveness ofthe hearts. This brief review was encouraging, andone of my colleagues—Clyde Manwell, an expertin respiratory pigment function—was excited tolearn about the red ‘‘blood’’ in Noetia ponderosa(an ark shell) and Cardita floridana (a small clam).So the two of us went to Florida for 2 wk, nearyear’s end; we collected animals, and did exper-iments at the Alligator Harbor Laboratory—heon the distribution and function of hemoglobinsin the two species of bivalves, and I on the effectsof acetylcholine on the hearts of several bivalvespecies.

Sometime in 1963–64, while Collier was Direc-tor, Manwell returned to the Marine Lab to studythe striking differences in the hemoglobins of‘‘stout’’ and ‘‘thin’’ sea cucumbers (Thyonellagemmata). He published three or four papers onthe basis of his Florida studies, then went to live inGreat Britain, and we have never met again.

My data set from Florida required expansion,so I went to marine laboratories in other regionsof the country, until I had examined about 50different species, and the variation in heartresponses was clear and predictable. Then Ipublished a couple of papers and continueddoing comparative pharmacology until I retired.

Robert T. Paine and the Great Graduate StudentSabbatical.—That Glottidia pyramidata—an inartic-

ulate (or lingulid) brachiopod—is relativelycommon along the west coast of Florida isprobably still not well known. But Bob Painedid know, having read the literature of the late19th and early 20th centuries. And why wouldn’the want to do his doctoral research on theecology of a species that had remained virtuallyunchanged since the Ordovician, i.e., for 40–50million yr? Paine reports: ‘‘So I made exploratorytrips from Ann Arbor (University of Michigan) in1957 and 1958, just to prove to my advisor thatbrachiopods could be found.’’

In June, 1959, with the proof in, Paineembarked on what he calls ‘‘my graduate studentsabbatical: moving to Florida, [and] living out ofmy VW van.’’ It was on this third trip that Painefound the Alligator Harbor Marine Laboratoryand was given permission to reside there for anextended period, in fact, about 11 mo. In thattime, and with plenty of travel, he managed todetermine the range and habitat of Glottidia andthen—focusing on two populations, in AlligatorHarbor and Cape Haze—to quantitatively de-scribe their life history, particularly reproduction,and the ecology of the planktonic larvae, leadingto the distribution of the adult populations.

In the course of investigating Glottidia, Painebecame fascinated with a complex communityon Baymouth Bar. The food web comprisedeight predatory gastropods and a variety ofanimals (including some of the gastropods)who were their prey. By determining the preyof each gastropod, and identifying the adapta-tions or conditions that allowed others to avoidpredation, it was possible to tease apart acomplex food web into simpler subwebs, whichcould then be studied more effectively. Paineremarks: ‘‘In many ways, the gastropods weremore interesting than the brachiopods, and theycertainly stimulated my career-long interests inpredation.’’ Indeed, within 10 yr of leavingFlorida, he clarified, in two landmark papers,the role of ‘‘keystone predators’’ in biodiversity.

Paine finished at Michigan in 1961—theGlottidia story was his dissertation—and went offto a postdoctoral fellowship at the ScrippsInstitute of Oceanography, where he organizedhis Alligator Harbor data into about six papers.He joined the Department of Zoology at theUniversity of Washington in 1962, where hebecame chairman, and where, though retired, hestill works. Paine’s work has had a markedinfluence on ecology, converting it into adynamic experimental science; he has receivedmany honors, and is a member of the NationalAcademy of Sciences. And he will appear againtoward the end of this narrative.


THE GREAT MOVE

Carl Oppenheimer.—(Director 1964–1971), Ph.D.,University of California, San Diego (ScrippsInstitution of Oceanography) (1961): Areas ofexpertise: marine microbial ecology, geomicro-biology, petroleum microbiology and pollution,coastal zone management, known globally as afounder of bioremediation.

Soon after his doctoral studies, Oppenheimerjoined the faculty of the Institute of MarineScience at the University of Miami. From there,in 1964, he moved to FSU, and during the next7 yr, fulfilled several goals: he served as the lastdirector of the OI, he oversaw its closing (1964–68), and he replaced the OI with a newDepartment of Oceanography in the College ofArts and Sciences, where he developed a newgraduate program and served as the firstchairman (1968–71).

Oppenheimer also oversaw the funding, de-velopment, and design of a new marine labora-tory at St. Teresa. In 1964, the State Board ofControl had approved FSU’s request for $27,000to buy an 80-acre lot that, with Ed Ball’s donatedland, would provide space to build a newlaboratory with enough left over for futureexpansion. The new FSUML was about 8 mileswest of the previous site on Alligator Harbor, and48 miles from campus, about the same distanceas that from campus to the Alligator Harbor Lab(Fig. 1).

The new lab had a larger research buildingwith labs and suites with running seawater, aclassroom/library, a large maintenance shop,four efficiency apartments, and a four-bedroomhouse for a resident superintendant. A largebasin and a high concrete dock were designed toserve an oceangoing research vessel.

In the expectation that the new facility woulddevelop a major seagoing research initiative, adeep channel was dredged adjacent to thelaboratory, and Oppenheimer obtained the StormyPetrel, a 125-foot hull, intended as the primaryseagoing research platform. Although the shiphad a newly reconditioned winch on it, it lackedan engine. Moreover, the hoped-for researchinitiative failed to develop, and funding for largeships was dedicated to the newly formed (in 1967)Florida Institute of Oceanography, a statewideacademic infrastructure support organization.

Oppenheimer’s directorship transformedFSU’s marine laboratory in every conceivableway: its location, size, structure, services, admin-istration, and especially its potential for growthand development. But the direction of thatgrowth and development was not at all clear.So although a metamorphosis had surely begun,

it would take almost 4 decades to complete—ornot. In 1971, Oppenheimer returned to theUniversity of Texas, where he remained for therest of his career. After he left FSU, the StormyPetrel was towed away.

THE LONG STRUGGLE (1971–2006)

Natural surroundings near the FSUML.—The loca-tion of FSU’s marine laboratory near TurkeyPoint is unique in a number of respects (Fig. 1). Itresides between two extensive watersheds, thoseof the Ochlocknee River to the east and theApalachicola River to the west, and is nestedwithin a region of extensive conservation lands. Itlies within the Alligator Harbor Aquatic Preserve(5,814 ha) managed by the Florida Department ofEnvironmental Protection; littoral coastal areas tothe east are within the St. Marks National WildlifeRefuge (27,519 ha) and, to the west, within theApalachicola National Estuarine Research Re-serve (99,553 ha). Further, the ApalachicolaNational Forest (228,647 ha) and Tate’s HellState Forest (81,914 ha) stretch to the north andwest. These substantial conservation efforts haveresulted in virtually pollution-free nearshorewaters. Seagrass beds (mainly Thalassia testudi-num) provide most of the local subtidal primaryproductivity and habitats for a remarkably diversefauna (including more than 65 marine algalspecies, 150 molluscan species, 80 annelid species,120 decapod species, and numerous marinevertebrates and planktonic species), playingfundamental structural and functional roles incoastal and marine ecosystems. They are alsovulnerable to exploitation and to disturbance.Indeed, the area within which the lab is embed-ded is considered to be among the moreproductive and diverse coastal habitats in theUnited States, and a prime candidate for servingas the focus of intense research and conservationefforts.

THE DIRECTORS: FROM HARRISS TO IVERSON

Robert Harriss.—(Director 1971–1974), Ph.D.,Rice University (1965): Areas of expertise:regional and global environmental change, citiesas complex adaptive systems, integration ofscience with the arts.

As a young oceanography faculty member, the1970s were an exciting, productive, and oftenimpetuous era in my life and career. In amoment of weakness, I accepted the additionalresponsibility as Director of the FSUML. VicePresident of Research, Robert Johnson, and CarlOppenheimer, my Oceanography Departmenthead, assured me that a reduction of one course


from my teaching load would provide the timenecessary to lead the lab. This was a grossunderestimate, but I viewed the Marine Lab asan opportunity to live and work close to thecoastal ecosystems that I researched.

During my first week at the lab, I wasconfronted by staff discord. With great anxiety,I called the maintenance and ship staff for a face-to-face discussion of the issues. The problematicstaff member resigned, and I promoted EarnestGay to the Marine Supervisor position, where heserved until the mid-1980s. Earnest saw to theday-to-day operation of the facility and wouldbecome an important mentor during my tenureas Lab Director. Joe Barber, the Captain of theR/V Tursiops (a 60-foot steel-hulled T-boat),Bobby Millender, First Mate, and other supportstaff were a great team. Meanwhile, I lived onsite, in the house on the lab property, duringmuch of my tenure.

The 1970s were the best of times for research-ers in the environmental sciences. Our R/VTursiops was an ideal platform for researchprograms on the biogeochemistry of rivers,estuaries, and coastal waters, from the FloridaEverglades to the Mississippi Delta, and theNational Science Foundation (NSF) providedadequate support for the vessel to be at sea 100–150 d each year. Moreover, the Vice President ofResearch provided a modest increase in the labbudget to support my efforts to attract morescientists and students to the lab, both FSU folkand visitors. Rich Iverson, Jim Jones, SkipLivingston, Bill Herrnkind, and other facultyhad very productive projects at the lab. A majorSouth Florida study included a fruitful collabo-ration with H. T. Odum at the University ofFlorida: my group learned how to do modelingwith an analog computer, and his students wereintroduced to field measurements. Odum’s 1971book, Environment, Power, and Society, profoundlyinfluenced my thinking and subsequent careerinterests. At the same time, Skip Livingston andWalter Glooschenko collaborated with me todocument coastal environmental damage, and totake on paper, pesticide, and other pollutingindustries.

Many of my graduate students subsequentlyhad distinguished careers in academia andgovernment laboratories. Jack Winchester, Chairof the Department of Oceanography, providedinspiring leadership. I resigned my position atthe lab in 1974 to assume a position as atemporary program manager at the NSF, whereI hoped to inspire more awareness of the powerof interdisciplinary approaches to the environ-mental sciences.

After my departure from FSU in 1978, I heldpositions at NASA, the University of NewHampshire, Texas A&M, and the NationalCenter for Atmospheric Research. In 2006, Ireturned to Houston, birthplace of my profes-sional career, to serve as President of theHouston Advanced Research Center, a nonprofitinstitution dedicated to sustainability science. Ialso hold adjunct faculty positions at Texas A&M-Galveston and the University of Houston.

R. Winston Menzel.—(Director 1974–1978), Ph.D.,Texas A&M University (1954): Areas of expertise:all aspects of bivalve molluscan biology, especial-ly that of oysters and quahogs.

Menzel came from a family of commercialfishermen who worked on the ChickahominyRiver in Virginia. But after his Master’s study ofthe James River catfish fishery, Menzel’s intereststurned to the reproduction, development, andgrowth of oysters. He was working in Louisiana,and in 1946, was involved—as Collier had been—in the legal argument between the Louisianaoystermen and the oil companies. His doctoralwork also involved oysters—a biological compar-ison of Crassostrea virginica and Ostrea equestris,and when it was complete, in 1954, he joined theFSU Department of Marine Science.

Menzel’s research at FSU, though focused on afew bivalve genera, was quite broad; about half ofit addressed biological questions (ecology, pop-ulation biology, behavior, and parasitology); asmaller proportion dealt with cellular, genetic,and chromosomal questions (including hybrid-ization and protozoan diseases); and only a smallfraction of his papers were about cultivation. Butsuch an artificial parsing of his oeuvre is clearlyoff, for cultivation of marine animals underliesvirtually all of Menzel’s work. He remarked in1961 that open land was disappearing as thepopulation increased, and suggested that shallowcoastal waters be exploited by scientifically based‘‘husbandry of marine forms, or mariculture,’’thus both coining the word, and revealing hisperspective.

Menzel carried out substantial field andlaboratory research both at the Alligator HarborLaboratory and at the FSUML when it moved toTurkey Point. In 1956, he updated the checklistof local animals and plants that Harold Hummhad prepared in 1953, adding more species andcommentary, and this annotated checklist is nowin its third edition (1971).

Menzel’s relaxed manner and slow drawl ledpeople to discount him. But he was close to hismany students, who respected his grasp of theliterature and natural history, his intelligence,and wit. Through the four years of his director-


ship, Menzel attended to his research andwriting, continued to do so after he retired,and then until he passed away in 1989.

Michael J. Greenberg.—(Director 1978–1980),Ph.D., Harvard University (1958): Areas ofexpertise: comparative pharmacology and phys-iology of invertebrates.

Research: In 1965, 10 yr after my Master’s degreestudies with Charles Metz, I returned to FSU’sDepartment of Biological Science. The astonish-ing biological diversity at Baymouth Bar andalong the coast were still compelling, and thediverse interests of the graduate students in mylab led to a varied research program thatincluded osmotic regulation and echinodermregeneration, as well as the basic theme ofbivalve heart pharmacology and physiology.

When it was my turn to be Director of theFSUML, my primary aim was to develop anacceptable level of scientific activity at thelaboratory—and that was strange, consideringthe operation of my own research group. Typical-ly, during low tides, we would use the skiffs at theAlligator Harbor Lab to go down to BaymouthBar, or drive to other sites along the coast. Wewould collect the required animals and then drivethem back to campus, where we would maintainthem in aerated, artificial seawater in a tempera-ture-controlled walk-in cooler, until they wereused in experiments. Clearly, the Alligator HarborLab was serving our research program primarily asa transportation hub, and that relationship didnot change when the new facility at Turkey Pointopened in the spring of 1970.

Education: In the 1970s, Bill Herrnkind and Ibegan to participate in the general residentialmarine biology course that Albert Collier haddeveloped at the FSUML. But also in the 1970s, Iwas involved in Experimental Invertebrate Zoology, aresidential summer course offered at the MBL(Woods Hole). Like most MBL courses, it wasteam-taught, so specialized instruction could beprovided by several expert faculty. This seemed agood model for a multidisciplinary course inExperimental Marine Biology (EMB) at FSUML.There were only three problems: recruitingstudents and instructors, and obtaining generalmeasuring and optical equipment for the labs.

Fortunately, the State universities in Floridawere on the quarter system during the 1970s. Sowe proposed—and could reasonably expect—that at least some interested students would bewilling to devote 10 wk, 5 d per wk—lecture, lab,or fieldwork from morning to evening—to thisone course. But in return, students would receive

all of their credits for the quarter (15 hr). Theywould not need to commute, but would live inthe FSUML dormitories. Many students signedon. Moreover, common course numbering hadjust been instituted in the State UniversitySystem, so we invited students from otheruniversities to join in, and a few did.

Recruiting faculty proved easy. Since EMBwould be team taught, faculty would stay only aweek or two at Turkey Point; they would reside inthe lab director’s house, give daily lectures intheir field of interest, and offer a set oflaboratory projects in their field, which thestudents would carry out. Moreover, althoughthe course had a research assistant, faculty wereinvited to bring one of their own graduatestudents along to help out, which they did. Theinstructors were primarily from Biological Sci-ence: Larry Abele (invertebrate zoology), BillHerrnkind (marine behavior and ecology),William Marzluff from Chemistry, Gerald Schat-ten (development), and I (comparative physiol-ogy). But we also recruited Ranga Rao from theUniversity of West Florida (endocrinology) andBarry Ache from Florida Atlantic (neurophysiol-ogy).

The faculty did bring such specialized equip-ment as was needed for their laboratory exper-iments, and Bob Johnson (Vice-President forResearch) funded dissecting microscopes, spec-trometers, and recording oxygen meters andosmometers. With the problems solved, we testedEMB in 1975–76, and offered it statewide in1977.

Fitting EMB to the University’s academicrhythm, culture, and regulations was alwayschallenging—but interesting. In 1980, for exam-ple, we shifted the weekend to Tuesday andWednesday, so students could leave to conductbusiness on campus or in town. Still, the coursesucceeded and improved with each iteration; forme, it was the most rewarding undertaking of mydirectorship.

Maintenance: I had no sooner been appointedDirector then two problems emerged: First, aninspection revealed that the reinforcement barsin the floor and in the pillars holding up thelaboratory building had rusted, then expanded,and finally cracked the concrete around them.Moreover, the ventral surface of the buildingextending over the tank area was covered inasbestos, which we were required to remove atonce. And the seawater system, beset with silt, wasin need of attention. The repairs took months.

The second problem was tied up at thelaboratory’s dock: a large scruffy boat that nevermoved—and then disappeared. Thirty-two years


later, Herrnkind explains: ‘‘In about 1969,Professor James ‘‘Jimmy’’ Jones, a geologist,came to FSU, bringing with him R/V Tursiops,a 60-foot T-boat. Small and slow, but seaworthy, itbecame the laboratory’s oceangoing vessel. Itook it to Bimini several times (1973–75) where itserved as a mobile diving platform and thusenabled my research on the population biologyof spiny lobsters. I also used it in the ScientificDiving course; and others used it as well forresearch and teaching. By the late 1970s,however, its block funding had ended, and yetit needed major refurbishing. So it sat at thedock, and then (in about 1980) it was relin-quished to the Federal Government, who took itaway to storage in Bay St. Louis.’’

William F. Herrnkind.—(Director 1980–1985),Ph.D., University of Miami (1968): Areas ofexpertise: behavior and ecology of marinecrustaceans.

Research: The FSUML opened in late 1967, justas I joined the Biological Science faculty at FSU,and my graduate students and I have operatedthere ever since. Although the primary focus ofour research was on the behavior and ecology ofspiny lobsters, and was conducted underwater inthe subtropics, our experimental studies werecarried out at FSUML. In addition, our labcontinuously studied and published on littoralgastropods and crustaceans in the Gulf, and ontheir ecological linkages, both direct (predator–prey) and indirect (mollusk shell–web dynam-ics).

Diving: Already in the mid-1970s, I began toinstruct my graduate students in scuba divingsafety and the techniques of scientific diving.Then I hired a full-time Diving Officer andstarted to promote the development of anacademic diving program (ADP) that would beoffered and overseen by the FSUML. Thiscampaign was successful, and ADP has providedscience-diver training for many graduate stu-dents in marine science and underwater archae-ology, while also offering advisory and technicalsupport to research, including safety oversight,and free use of scuba gear and instrumentation.

Education: I continued to coordinate and teachin the multidisciplinary residence course: EMB.But in 1981, when the quarter system ended, sodid the course—overwhelmed by logistical andscheduling problems. Later, however, from 1995to 2006, I commuted from the main FSUcampus, 2 d per wk, to teach Biology of HigherMarine Invertebrates.

Maintenance: For 3 yr after the departure of R/VTursiops, only outboard skiffs and pontoon boatswere available to FSUML investigators. In 1981,however, soon after becoming Director, FSUacquired a vessel from U.S. Customs. RenamedR/V Callinectes, it was a 46-foot diesel-poweredcraft with a semitunneled stern, suitable for usein both near-offshore and bay waters. I securedfunds to upgrade it and oversaw its renovationinto a serviceable research platform.

Well before the age of desktops and theInternet, I also acquired a terminal with aphone-line linkage to the mainframe computeron the FSU campus. For the first time, computeraccess to the FSUML was available. Moreover, inresponse to an assault threat on a studentassistant staying overnight at the coastal facility,I persuaded the administration to provideenhanced security, including a barrier fence,expanded outdoor lighting, and under mysuccessor, after-hours security personnel.

Outreach: During my directorship, I initiated aseries of outreach programs that continue to thisday. For example, in 1984, Dr. Patricia Haywardand I created Saturday-at-the-Sea (SATS), ahand-on program for middle school studentsthat has operated at the lab for 26 yr and served,20,000 middle-school students (see Outreachsection below).

W. Ross Ellington.—(1985–1989), Ph.D., Univer-sity of Rhode Island (1976): Areas of expertise:enzyme structure, function, and evolution.

Administration: I have been a faculty member atFSU in the Department of Biological Sciencesince 1981. While Marine Lab Director, I estab-lished the position of Associate Director (AD) atFSUML to provide continuous, on-site directionfor all of the diverse day-to-day operations. Thus,the AD position anticipated expanded research,teaching, and outreach at the coast, and providedthe Director with time to meet faculty andadministrative commitments on the main cam-pus, and thereby to pursue long-term support forthe Marine Lab. I also brought the FSUML intothe National Association of Marine Laboratories.In my present position as Associate Vice Presidentfor Research, I watch over the direction andoperation of the Marine Laboratory, includingchanges to the facility and personnel.

Maintenance: I obtained night and weekendsecurity personnel for the coastal facility andoversaw the repair and improvement of infra-structure following substantial damage by Hurri-cane Kate. An unusable boat launch ramp was


replaced with a new, larger one suitable to allFSUML outboard watercraft up to 28 feet inlength.

As Director, I obtained NSF funding to build arecirculating seawater system. This opened theMarine Lab to research on marine species withnarrow salinity and temperature tolerances, andsupported studies that require long-term con-trolled conditions. Additionally, I upgraded theopen seawater system, providing higher waterquality, greater reliability of supply, and theexpansion necessitated by the increasing de-mands of research and outreach programs.

Research: My research program focuses on thestructure, function, and evolution of phosphoryltransfer enzymes. This is a highly technicalprogram that must be sited on the main campus.But most of the model animals and experimentalmaterials used in the program are, or are derivedfrom, local marine invertebrates, from spongesto octopi.

Nancy H. Marcus.—(1989–2001), Ph.D. YaleUniversity (1976): Areas of expertise: ecologyand evolutionary biology, centering on dorman-cy in the life cycle of marine copepods.

My career began at the Woods Hole Oceano-graphic Institution, first as a postdoctoral fellowand then as member of the scientific staff. Imoved to the FSU Department of Oceanographyin 1987 and assumed the FSUML directorship in1989.

Maintenance: With two NSF facilities improve-ment grants, the seawater system was greatlyupgraded and expanded. The raw water intakewas moved farther offshore and deeper, provid-ing a continuous flow, even during storms andextreme low tides. Because of these improve-ments, marine organisms could be held forlonger periods, with less risk of stoppages ordeclines in the quality of the seawater supply.And therefore, research outcomes for replicatedand long-term tests and experiments wereimproved.

I also supervised a mammoth dredging oper-ation to clear accumulated sediment and todeepen the Marine Lab channel. As a result,larger vessels, including R/V Callinectes, couldfinally enter and leave the basin without risk ofgrounding or propeller damage. I also ensuredthat all programs were able to operate throughthe year-long period of dredging, that theseawater supply was adequate, and that dredgedsediment caused no environmental damage orlocal disturbance of sensitive sea grass and oysterreef habitats.

Research: Among the major projects at theMarine Lab was my long-term, externally fundedresearch on the life cycle needs and cultivationof marine copepods. As important as the basicresearch goals, was the evaluation of cultivatedcopepods as a superior food source for rearingcommercially valuable fish species. I also builttwo large and durable greenhouses.

By 2001, I had served longer than any Director,before or since. After completing my term asFSUML director, I went on to become Director ofthe Women in Math, Science, and Engineeringprogram (2001–2005), and Chair of the Depart-ment of Oceanography (2003–2005). By August2005, these roles had prepared me to take on anew challenge: Dean of Graduate Studies.

Richard Iverson.—(Director 2001–2005), Ph.D.,Oregon State University (1972): Areas of exper-tise: physiology and ecology of marine phyto-plankton.

During his tenure as Director, Iverson refur-bished the R/V Callinectes, replacing the electri-cal system, installing a new winch, replacing theradar/sounding system with an advanced unit,and replacing the life rafts. These improvementsassured that the craft would continue to beeffective for both teaching and research cruises.Iverson also replaced the engines in the heavilyused small-boat fleet that was serving, not onlygreatly expanded public outreach programs, butalso supporting the research and teaching ofFSU and other institutions.

Iverson also significantly upgraded the FSUMLinfrastructure. With support from Brooks Keeland Kirby Kemper, he replaced the freshwatersystem and installed a 5,000-square-foot modularbuilding that had been donated by the SeminoleBoosters. He also secured and oversaw two majorinstallations affecting information transmission:fiber-optic Internet cable was laid throughoutFSUML research, education, and maintenancebuildings, and a server and new personalcomputers for all staff members were provided.These improvements permitted direct commu-nication with the main campus via a DSLInternet connection. He also replaced theantiquated telephone system, including com-plete rewiring throughout all of the buildingson the Marine Lab campus.

For the first time, the laboratory could provideon-site dedicated offices, meeting space, andcommunications for researchers and teachers,both from FSU and elsewhere. These improve-ments would later enhance academic activity atthe coast, facilitating an increased appreciationfor the pristine habitats and diverse organismslocated adjacent to the FSUML.


RESEARCH AT THE FSUML: FROM HARRISS TO IVERSON

Robert J. ‘‘Skip’’ Livingston.—(Biological Science):From 1970 through the 1990s—and with theintensity for which he is legendary—Skip Living-ston and a large contingent of collaborators andstudents, graduate and undergraduate, re-searched the ecology of our important panhan-dle estuaries: the Fenholloway, Econfina, Choc-tawhatchee, and especially the Apalachicola,Florida’s main producer of oysters as well asshrimp and blue crabs. Livingston aimed toaccumulate sufficient long-term physical andbiological data so that seasonal, annual, andfuture trends could be assessed. Of specialinterest to him was the trophodynamics of eachsystem—the key to the nature of the food chainand to productivity measures. The work ofLivingston’s group was largely in the field andsorting room, but they also had a continuouspresence at the FSUML, where they conductedlong-term mesocosm experiments. His ability tosustain support for such long-term data collec-tion and subsequent analysis was remarkable.

Livingston’s projects yielded seminal discover-ies about the relationship of river flow to thebay’s ecology, and the contributions of microor-ganisms to the productivity of the ecosystem. Theprojects spun off numerous Master’s and doc-toral studies, and a set of lessons on the nature ofthe estuary was developed and was taught in thelocal public schools in Franklin County.

William ‘‘Bill’’ Herrnkind.—(Biological Science): Amarine station located amidst pristine habitatsthat provides the basic services of small boats andrunning seawater can generate significant re-search by graduate students and faculty evenwhen their funding is limited. This possibility hasbeen revealed by more than 3 decades ofobserving the sophisticated behavior and intri-cate linkages among littoral Gulf mollusks and,mainly, crustaceans that constitute what has beentermed the ‘‘shell web.’’

In an area without nearshore rocks, molluskshells provide both the limiting hard substrateand shelter. Although bivalves and gastropodsboth produce shells, it is mainly predaceousgastropods that make the shells available forother taxa to exploit, e.g., hermit crabs, seaanemones, gobies, blennies, and other benthicfishes. Meanwhile, blue, stone, and box crabs—shell-crushing predators of mollusks—removethose shells for their own use. A dynamicinteraction between these processes operates insalt marshes and in sea grass meadows. Horseconchs, the top gastropod predator of localwaters, devours pen shell flesh, thus providing

nesting sites for several fish species and dwarfoctopuses—an important indirect ecologicaleffect. Some shell-using hermit crabs activelyseek and acquire, by specialized behavior,anemones that sting potential crustacean pred-ators. Such insights and many others haveemerged from a lineage of graduate studentprojects that have been directed, since the 1960s,by Herrnkind and other faculty from FSU andelsewhere. Two of the earliest and best-knownpapers on this topic were by Robert T. Paine,present Chair of the FSUCML Science AdvisoryBoard.

Christopher C. Koenig and Felicia C. Coleman(Biological Science).—Over the past 2 decades,Koenig and I have elucidated the life history andrecruitment of a number of species of groupers.During the early 1990s, we worked on theseaspects off the FSUML, focusing especially ongag and red grouper, two of the most sought-after and heavily fished species in both therecreational and commercial fisheries in this partof the Gulf. In particular, we found that, duringtheir juvenile stage, gag use the seagrass beds,which extend from Apalachee Bay to throughoutthe Big Bend, as critically important nurserygrounds. We estimated that the year-classstrength, just in the St. George Sound, wasnearly 1 million young fish. This signified boththe important function of this region as nurseryhabitat and its incredible importance in supply-ing fishery productivity. The National MarineFisheries Service (NMFS) was highly interestedin this work. So more than 15 yr ago, we left theMarine Lab to work with colleagues at NMFSlabs throughout Florida. This change allowedus to expand our work offshore to the edge ofthe continental shelf and to the rest of thestate.

In the early 2000s, Herrnkind used our dataeffectively to forestall plans for a marina to bebuilt off the FSUML.

OUTREACH AT THE FSUML: FROM HARRISS TO IVERSON

In 1984, the Florida Legislature mandated thestate universities to offer their facilities andservices beyond enrolled students, i.e., directlyto state citizens. Bill Herrnkind and PatriciaHayward (Biological Science.) designed andobtained funding for the SATS program toencourage interest in nature and science amongmiddle-school students—an audience that tendsto lose interest in science. The hands-on activitiesincluded field trips, wading and seining along theshore, and trawling the sea-grass meadows justoffshore, as well as a brief wet lab session using


dissecting microscopes and touch tanks. In 1996,the program won the Governor’s EnvironmentalEducational Excellence Award. Now SATS andspin-off programs operate several days weekly inspring through fall. In 1994, Herrnkind initiated aNSF–Science Education program for middle-school science teachers, Marine Ecology forTeachers: A Model for Inquiry-Based Teaching.The success of this experience for the participantsformed the basis of two subsequent long-termNSF grants (2000–2012).

Among the legacies of Nancy Marcus’s tenureis the very successful, ongoing, Open House Day.This biannual springtime event draws hundredsof coastal citizens to the FSUML to experienceresearch exhibits, lectures on a wide array oftimely marine topics, and close-up, hands-oncontact with live, local marine invertebrates andfishes.

These collective outreach efforts have en-hanced the perception of the marine lab andits regional role.

THE AWAKENING (2006–)

In 2004, Kirby Kemper, Vice President forResearch, appointed a select committee of FSUMarine Science faculty (including Herrnkindand Coleman) to evaluate and recommend thedirection of future development at the FSUML.The committee’s proposals led the FSU admin-istration to appreciate the value in supportingand growing the laboratory’s research capacity,an epiphany that set the stage for significantchanges in mission, organization, and scope ofactivity.

The mission expanded from that of a supportfacility to becoming a programmatically basedcenter for research, education, and outreach, witha focus on the coastal and marine ecosystems ofthe northeastern Gulf of Mexico. The organiza-tion changed with the hiring of a full-time on-sitedirector, three resident research faculty members,and three postdoctoral associates to get it off theground, and moving both the administrativesupport positions and the academic diving pro-gram from the main campus to the laboratory.The scope of activity expanded to include place-based research, education, and outreach, and thesignificantly increased involvement of undergrad-uate students in marine research.

THE DIRECTOR

Felicia C. Coleman.—(Director, 2006–), Ph.D.Florida State University (1991): Areas of exper-tise: reef fish ecology, marine fisheries manage-ment and policy.

Before describing the transformation of theFSUCML, I want to acknowledge the giants I’vehad for mentors. In particular, Greenberg,Herrnkind, and Bob Paine have been walkingwith me from the start—and Joe Travis, Dean ofArts and Sciences, even before that. Greenbergpointed me toward developing a Board ofTrustees—on which both he and Herrnkindserve, and through which Travis is involved—and a Scientific Advisory Board, chaired by BobPaine. They are as engaged and energetic abunch as I’ve ever seen. I also acknowledge theincredible staff at the laboratory, from long-timers who shared the institutional history to thenew staff now on board. They get it. All of thesepeople are dedicated to the laboratory and allthat it can become, and perhaps more particu-larly, they love this part of the world—now inimmediate jeopardy because of the DeepwaterHorizon oil spill of April 2010.

Maintenance: Marine labs are hungry beasts.During my first 2 yr as director, the 1960s-eraelectrical and fueling systems were replaced, andthe internet connectivity of the lab was broughtinto the 21st century by upgrading the singleDSL phone line to a T-3 line, thus unifyingFSUCML electronically with campus. We thenwent wireless. The building that was moved onsite during Iverson’s tenure was quickly filledwith staff, faculty, and postdoctoral associates,and was also used to host a series of outreachevents. An energy audit caused us to replaceoutdated equipment with energy-efficient gear,and reduced our energy use by nearly half,despite the growing number of residents. Welandscaped the grounds and reorganized spaceto squeeze in a dive locker and graduate studenthousing. And then took a breath. Next wasresearch.

Research: The mission of the Marine Laborato-ry—outlined at its inception—is now in fullswing: we focus on conducting innovative,interdisciplinary research on the coastal andmarine ecosystems of the northeastern Gulf ofMexico, and on providing the scientific under-pinnings for informed policy decisions.

The first three faculty and three postdoctoralassociates hired to tackle this mission arrived in2007 and 2008. They brought in research dollarsfor the first time, research technicians, and morerecently, graduate students. Their hunger forspace and developing projects has been met bymoving them into existing laboratory space,constructing storage units for gear, and convert-ing the Marcus greenhouses into labs used to


evaluate predator–prey interactions and geneticdiversity in sea grass and salt marsh plant systems.

RESIDENT SCIENTISTS

David Kimbro (Ph.D., University of California,Davis) studies the community of organisms thatlive in oyster reef and salt marsh habitats. Hecombines laboratory and field experiments withbroad-scale monitoring to understand the suiteof environmental conditions—including nutri-ents, phytoplankton, tidal inundation, salinity,and temperature—that both promote and inhib-it predators from maintaining critical habitat allalong the NE gulf coastline.

Randall Hughes (Ph.D., University of Califor-nia, Davis) examines the ecological effects ofspecies and genetic diversity in salt marshes, seagrasses, and oyster reefs. Diversity often reducesthe negative impacts of disturbance and thuscould be an important factor in the response ofthese habitats to the oil spill. In addition,because these systems provide critical habitatfor a wide variety of birds, fishes, and inverte-brates, any factors that mitigate the negativeeffects of oil could have far-reaching communityand ecosystem effects.

There is a strong fisheries ecology componentat the FSUCML now, including scientists who usefishery-independent surveys to develop baselinehabitat-specific indices of the relative abundanceof larger fishes, including sharks, grouper, andmany other species throughout the region. TheFSUCML shark studies, conducted by DeanGrubbs (Ph.D., Virginia Institute of MarineScience), indicate that this region is home to atleast 12 species of sharks, including small andlarge coastal sharks that are managed at thefederal level. His data show that the extensive seagrass beds in the Big Bend serve critical functionsas pupping and nursery grounds for at least six ofthese species. In addition, Christopher Stallings(Ph.D., Oregon State University), who studiespopulation and community dynamics of marineorganisms in sea grass beds and rocky spongereefs, finds that more than 10 species ofeconomically important bony fishes and manyspecies of forage fishes inhabit these habitats asjuveniles or adults (or both). This kind ofinformation is critical for assessing the ecologicaleffects of habitat restoration efforts or improvedwater quality, as well as the effects of habitatdegradation caused by development, dredging,or oil inundation.

Farther to the west, from Apalachicola to theMississippi River, Kevin Craig (Ph.D., DukeUniversity) assesses the effects of human-in-duced changes in water quality—such as nutrient

pollution, decreases in river flow, and shorelinedevelopment—on the nursery function of estu-aries and other nearshore habitats. He has astrong interest in understanding both the acuteeffects of human-induced impacts on economi-cally important species living in these habitatsand the longer-term effects that are mediated byinteractions within coastal food webs.

Farther offshore, Koenig and I study reef fishspecies that have complex life cycles involvingindividual life stages that move from pelagic toinshore and to offshore habitats. At each stage,these fish have the potential to be affected byanthropogenic impacts. The focus of our re-search is understanding how these impacts affecttheir productivity and life history.

Campus-based faculty.—The connection betweenthe FSUCML and campus-based faculty remainsactive. Indeed, more of the research is becomingcollaborative and interdisciplinary, involvingcolleagues in the departments of BiologicalScience and Earth, Ocean, and AtmosphericSciences. They include William Burnett, who hasevaluated submarine groundwater discharge as apathway for delivering nutrients and otherdissolved constituents from land to the coastalocean; Jeffrey Chanton, who uses stable isotopesas a means of investigating linkages in marinefood webs; Joel Kostka, whose work focuses onmarine microbial communities and their func-tion in enhancing nutrient availability in coastalareas; Markus Huettel, who investigates sedi-ment–water exchange of O2 and nutrients in thecoastal zone, key parameters in biogeochemicalstudies of marine systems; Kevin Speer, who runsthe Current Meter Facility, a field operationssystem housed in part at the FSUCML thatsupports grant-funded research, including hy-drographic observations in the NE Gulf ofMexico; and David Thistle, an expert in benthicecology, whose research includes studies ofcopepod communities throughout the Gulf ofMexico—their systematics, morphology, re-sponse to natural disturbances, and habitatassociations.

Education.—In 2006, we moved the administra-tion of the Certificate Program in MarineBiology to the FSUCML. Herrnkind and Ideveloped this program over 10 yr ago, in theDepartment of Biological Science, to provideintensive research experiences for undergradu-ate students who had already demonstrated akeen interest in marine science. Many of thestudents enrolled in the program are mentoredby FSUCML faculty and postdocs, as are otherundergraduates from FSU and other academic


institutions. Knowing a good thing—when welooked back in history and saw it—and withencouragement and early participation byHerrnkind, the lab also started offering summercourses that now include ‘‘saturation time’’ forundergraduate students at the Marine Lab.

The faculty members at the FSUCML are alsoactively engaged in training graduate students,bringing in one student in 2008, four in 2009,and anticipating several more in 2010. Thisactivity has allowed the lab to grow the researchcapacity beyond that provided by the facultythemselves.

Outreach.—The ‘‘Forgotten Coast’’ of the Floridapanhandle is rapidly gaining population with itsassociated coastal development. To provideinformation of interest to coastal residents, weinitiated, in 2006, a monthly Public LectureSeries that usually fills the modest FSUCMLauditorium to overflowing. Speakers includelocal scientists, naturalists, state agency officers,and visiting authorities—a diversity of expertise.In addition, FSUCML has hosted numeroussymposia and conferences for small workinggroups, to exchange information about coastalissues, fisheries, and living marine resourcemanagement.

To further increase the lab’s visibility, weupdated the website, developed a biannualonline newsletter, and have continued theMarcus tradition of holding an open house everyother year. We strongly support the SATSprogram, and have developed a series ofnoncredit courses of our own that are gearedprimarily for adult audiences interested inlearning something about marine ecology. Inaddition, all of the researchers are involved inproviding service to state and federal agenciesresponsible for the management of the livingmarine resources of this region. It is consideredan important and integral part of all researchinitiatives.

CONCLUSIONS

1. A marine laboratory must aim to become aninteractive community of scientists—stu-dents, postdocs, and faculty—and staff,whose workplace is at the laboratory,and who all live nearby. Moreover, theirnumber, interests, ability, and relativepermanence must be sufficient to main-tain the interaction, and this is the basis

of ‘‘critical mass.’’ The selection, cohe-sion, and scientific productivity of thiscommunity is the function of the Direc-tor, who is also a working member of it.The Awakening at the FSUCMLwas possi-ble because the Director—with the helpof the FSU administration—could achievethese goals.

2. A close relationship between research andeducation is common at marine laborato-ries, but its form is variable—seminars, dataclubs, formal and informal technical train-ing, formal classes for residents, for visitors,in seasons, short, long, and classes forschoolchildren. But somehow, when aninteractive research community is lacking,education, particularly at the college level,sputters and winks out. The answer is clear:research and teaching are closely relatedeverywhere—they are functions that informeach other regardless of the site. If onecan’t travel to do research at a marine labbecause his research and students are at auniversity, how can he come to teach, andabandon his research?

3. Reaching out to a community to increase itscitizens’ understanding and appreciation ofan institution’s perspectives, functions, andactivities is absolutely critical for ruralmarine laboratories like the FSUCML.Fortunately, outreach has developed amaz-ingly at the FSUCML, as is emphasized inthis article. But there are two lessons: show& tell is not the same as research & teach;and we must be careful that the commu-nity’s perception of our laboratory does notswing strongly to the former. Keeping theefforts spent on research, teaching, andoutreach in good proportion is a veryimportant function of the Director.

4. University-operated marine laboratories arealways prey to the vagaries of administrativeand cultural changes, changes in scientificpriorities, financial disasters, hurricanes,and oil spills. But the long history of theFSUCML clearly shows us that there isalways a road back—and it could be asuperhighway.

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COASTAL & MARINE

LABORATORY, 3618 COASTAL HIGHWAY, ST. TERESA,FL 2358-2702. (MJG, WFH) RETIRED PAST

DIRECTORS, FSUCML. (FCC) PRESENT DIRECTOR,FSUCML.


an international journal - florida state university · 2017. 3. 7. · 1954, humm left fsu...

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