Effects of Catastrophic Seagrass Loss and Predation Risk on the Ecological Structure and Resilience of a Model Seagrass Ecosystem

Abstract

It takes a village to write a dissertation, and I have many people to thank. First thanks go to my graduate committee, mentioned above, for their patience and constant guidance throughout the PhD process. Most importantly, thanks to Mike Heithaus, whose guidance, encouragement, baseline sampling, and dislike of waffle words allowed me to grow from a timid postgraduate into a fledgling scientist. I am still awed by your productivity and constant good humor, and thanks to you I have adopted a can-do attitude in my research and my professional life. Thank you for everything. As for the lab, thanks in particular to Jordy Thomson for showing me the ropes of Shark Bay, including how to run a boat, break a boat, fix a boat, and call for assistance when you can't fix a boatremember, every crisis is an opportunity. Also thanks for introducing me to Barret's Privateers, cleanskins, and most importantly, Spongebob. Kirk Gastrich deserves many thanks for his constant guidance and advice on all things Shark Bay, for tireless efforts to get the work done, good conversations at the captain's table, and for having an empty bag of chips when we needed it most. Derek Burkholder was also instrumental in helping complete this dissertation, particularly in the care and troubleshooting of our research fleet, of which he is the ultimate authority. I am also in his debt for the gargantuan baseline dataset which only a person of his resolve could build and which made chapter III possible. Thanks to Cindy Bessey (and Brett) for rescuing us from the middle of the outback, acting as a sounding board for ideas, and being the boots on the ground when I was 13,000 miles away. Thanks also to Phil, Adam, Jeremy, Diana, Beth, Camila, Jimmy, and the rest of the Heithaus lab, who made contributions great and small to my development as a grad student and scientist. vii My work in Shark Bay was made possible by the tireless efforts of an army of volunteers, specifically Robin Sarabia,