With a persistent passion for conducting research geared towards understanding coastal ecosystems to help guide decision-making processes, Melissa M. Baustian, Ph.D. joined the Institute in 2013. As a coastal ecologist, Baustian undertakes observational projects that are used to improve our knowledge of ecological responses to anthropogenic changes, including nutrient enrichment, climate change, and restoration initiatives.

Shifting her time between the field, laboratory, and office, Baustian leads high priority projects for the Institute, including the examination of how shifts from saltmarsh grasses to mangrove-dominated systems in Louisiana may influence the abundance of juvenile nekton, including the bottom feeding blue crabs and brown shrimp and carbon flow through existing marsh food webs. This research is funded by the Louisiana Sea Grant and represents a collaborative effort with Louisiana State University, where Baustian also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences.

“Participating and leading interdisciplinary projects as well as applying scientific results to coastal managers and decision makers is what I enjoy most at the Institute,” said Baustian. “Understanding and addressing the complexities within coastal ecosystems requires close coordination with multiple disciplines. Working at the Institute undoubtedly provides an environment in which I can collaborate with various scientists and engineers who have their own distinctive discipline, but know how to effectively work together.”

Baustian worked closely with a team of modelers and coastal geologists to support the development of a large-scale basin wide model used to examine nutrient-related dynamics from proposed sediment diversions outlined in the Coastal Master Plan. She is also currently collaborating with the United States Geological Survey and Gulf South Research Corporation in studying carbon dynamics in four marsh types throughout Louisiana to help better understand how climate change or coastal restoration might influence soil carbon decomposition and accumulation in marshes. The first of at least five scientific papers from this work was published in the journal “Wetlands” in January.

During graduate school, Baustian gained interdisciplinary experience through studying the benthic ecology of the bottom-water hypoxic area, commonly referred to as the “Dead Zone,” in the waters off Louisiana’s coast. She took that collaboration experience to her next project where she partnered with an environmental economist and several other water researchers as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Center for Water Sciences at Michigan State University, where she studied the essential mechanisms that couple humans and ecosystems in the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Baustian’s research continues to pursue and investigate how the changing Louisiana coastal landscape – including influences from climate change, coastal restoration, nutrient effects, and harmful algal blooms – may influence benthic and pelagic food webs and habitats essential for the health and sustainability of the coast.

To contact Melissa M. Baustian, send an email to mbaustian@thewaterinstitute.org. 

Each quarter, we will feature a different member of our distinguished team to highlight the diversity and strength of competencies housed at The Water Institute.