Jimmy Nelson

Graduate Student

Chemical Oceanography
Major Professor: Dr. Jeff Chanton

Department of Oceanography
Rm 107, Conradi
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1100

Research

My broad interests are in tracking how energy moves through and between ecosystems. My current project utilizes stable isotope analysis to determine if a seasonal egress of small seagrass dwelling fishes contributes significantly to offshore food webs. The reef fish fishery of the eastern Gulf of Mexico is extremely valuable to the economy of Florida, as it supports extensive commercial, recreational, and for-hire fisheries. The recreational fishery alone is valued at over 5 billion dollars. It is well established that seagrass habitat is important as a nursery to juvenile stages of many economically important fishes, but on the west coast of Florida seagrass beds may also have an important role in providing food energy to reefs 30 to 80 miles away. Such trophic linkages are virtually unstudied, but may be extremely important to the high fishery yields in this area. My overall goal is to elucidate the nature and magnitude of the trophic transfer of energy from near-shore primary production to offshore secondary fishery production. I hypothesize that this link is mediated through the well-known annual offshore migrations of pinfish and other seagrass inhabitants that provides food to large offshore predatory fishes.