Samantha Chapman
Villanova University, PA·Ecology & Evolution
Florida's coastal waters have suffered red tides and mass die-offs of fish and marine mammals, driven partly by nutrient pollution. At the same time, the narrow strips of coastal wetland that shield people from storms are eroding at their edges, ponding in their interiors as seas rise, and shifting from salt marsh grasses to mangrove forests as the climate warms.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Earth & Environmental Science
Plant Science & Agriculture
- Topics
coastal wetlands
salt marsh
mangroves
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- Test whether excess nitrogen loading disrupts the soil accumulation that lets coastal wetlands keep up with sea level rise, using experimental nitrogen additions at creekside and interior field plots.
- Determine whether conversion of salt marsh to mangrove raises ecosystem nitrogen demand enough to reduce nitrogen pollution in adjacent waterways, comparing marsh and nearby mangrove-dominated plots.
- Test whether nitrogen pollution speeds mangrove encroachment into salt marsh by meeting mangroves' higher nitrogen needs, combining field experiments with mapping and mathematical modeling.
- Build a nutrient layer for a coastal vulnerability map of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve, using reserve water quality data and project measurements to prioritize conservation and restoration sites.
More about the research
This project asks how nitrogen pollution and rising seas interact in these wetlands, and whether wetland loss and change are feeding back to worsen water quality.
Why it matters
Coastal land managers in northeastern Florida need data to decide how to curb nutrient pollution and protect wetlands that buffer communities from storms. By mapping nutrient hotspots and showing how nitrogen and mangrove spread affect wetland survival, this work could help prioritize sites for restoration in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve and beyond, and may reveal whether wetland loss is adding to pollution linked to red tides and wildlife die-offs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
James Morris
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether salt marsh elevation gain is driven by belowground biomass production of Spartina alterniflora and scales with net ecosystem production, using long-term North Inlet measurements.
Jessica Sullivan
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Measure how subtle marsh elevation and drainage patterns control water flow across the marsh surface, sediment buildup and how long water stays, across a salt marsh to forest gradient in the ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Merryl Alber
University of Georgia, GA·Ecology & Evolution
Characterize how the averages and variability of drivers such as sea level, salinity and flooding change across space and time on the Georgia coast, and integrate these dynamics through modeling.
The school
Villanova University: 4 labs on PI Pages, $33M a year on research, 32 research doctorates a year.
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