Janet Nestlerode
Ph.D. candidate
School of Marine Science
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
College of William & Mary
janetn@vims.edu

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science of the College of William and Mary investigating oyster reef restoration in Chesapeake Bay. My research focuses on factors affecting structural and functional organization of marine and estuarine invertebrate and epibenthic fish communities. My recent research has been largely directed toward the basic ecology of marine and estuarine benthic invertebrates and succession of benthic communities in restored oyster reef habitats. I am especially interested in the relationship between habitat structure and faunal survival and abundance and in understanding of how animals associated with oyster reefs (such as the blue crab and juvenile finfish) perceive this structured habitat as either protection from predators or as a place to forage, or both. I received my Master's degree in 1996 from VIMS where I studied predation of benthic macrofauna following low oxygen events that occur during the summer in deep areas of Chesapeake Bay.

I have always been fascinated with animals and I knew that I wanted to be a biologist at an early age. I spent my childhood summers in northwestern Pennsylvania where my Grandpa taught me how to catch nightcrawlers and look under rocks for crayfish (and then use them for fish bait - early trophic dynamics studies!). While at Edison High School in Alexandria, Virginia, my biology class went on a weekend trip to the Wallop's Island Marine Research Consortium to learn about estuarine habitats and critters - that is when I thought I might want to study biology in college. As an undergraduate at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, I took a course on marine ecology that included a field trip to the Florida Keys. It was there that I saw animals I had only read about or seen on TV. I was hooked and knew that I wanted to work toward a career in marine science.

I am very excited about our upcoming mission. This is the second mission that I have been involved in and the first where I will actually be saturating inside of Aquarius. I'm really looking forward to living underwater and being able to observe this world for longer than the time allotted for with normal SCUBA diving. Over the past few years, most of my time out in the field has been spent diving on and around oyster reefs in the murkier waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. While these are fascinating habitats that I love dearly, I am looking forward to getting some bottom time in where the waters are clear and warm.