Amazing Fulbright Year!

Everyone should have a Fulbright experience. The world would undoubtedly be a better and more tolerant place if they did.  My time in the UK at the Centre for Environmental, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science and the University of Exeter transformed my professional and personal life.  I am deeply grateful for having had the opportunity. Below is but a glimpse of the adventure:

My hosts at Cefas, Drs. Grant Stentiford and Kelly Bateman, demonstrate dissections of the edible crab and European lobster for representatives from the European Union

Dr. David Diaz, Anabel Caballero and I take a break between dives for the European spiny lobster on Illa Grossa in the Columbrete Islands 

Juvenile European spiny lobster Palinurus elephas in the Columbrete Islands, Spain

Chance to join the Cefas crack field team (Matt Green and Stu Ross) on the Tamar River in Cornwall, UK

Hunting the intriguing edible crab Cancer pagurus in Newton's Cove, UK.

Juvenile edible crab in the rocky intertidal.

Some R&R with the family in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Training the next generation of marine ecologists on Mallorca!

Olivia and I standing on one of the earthen walls surrounding the Maiden Castle (Iron age hill fort) in Dorchester. Wouldn't be a picture of Dorset, UK without sheep.

  

BEHRINGER ABROAD: 2015 - 2016 Fulbright in the United Kingdom!

Dr. Behringer was named a Fulbright Scholar to the UK for 2015 - 2016, so in August 2015 the Behringer family moved lock, stock, and barrel to Dorchester, England. Don will be studying with Dr. Grant Stentiford and others at the University of Exeter and the Centre for Environmental, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science. His research will focus on disease ecology in the edible crab Cancer pagurus and will use cutting edge eDNA techniques to study the relationship between pathogen prevalence in hosts and pathogen presence and transport in the water column. While he is in the UK, the Behringer Lab is still hard at work back in Florida but still get together for cyber lab meetings!

Bullies of the Benthos!

Recent research by master's student, Elliot Hart, showed that stone crabs completely dominate spiny lobsters for access to crevice shelters in the Florida Keys. In areas where stone crabs are abundant, spiny lobsters are forced to aggregate in the remaining shelters or emigrate from the area.  However, when stone crabs are removed, lobsters rush in and spread out, filling the void. Elliot graduated with his M.S. degree in spring 2014.

Return of the Sponges!!

Don't be afraid, its not a 60's horror movie. July was sponge restoration month down in the Florida Keys! This is a collaborative research project between the Butler Lab at Old Dominion University and the Behringer Lab at the University of Florida. Our goal is to determine the "ecological feasibility" of jump starting the return of sponges to areas of western Florida Bay where they were killed by the cyanobacteria plankton bloom of 2007. The first picture below show new "cuttings" that were out-planted this month and the second two show what similar cuttings look like after three years! Notice all of the other animals that call the restored sponges home.