Dr. Dennis DeVries

The overall focus of my research efforts has been at the interface between ecology and fisheries/resource management. As such, I address applied problems in fisheries management and resource conservation using concepts and approaches from the basic field of ecology. In an effort to understand community patterns in aquatic systems, such that informed management decisions can be made, I have used a variety of approaches, including whole-system manipulations, in situ enclosure/exclosure experiments, pond experiments, theoretical modeling, laboratory experiments, and descriptive sampling. In particular I am interested in:

• the roles of species interactions (including direct and indirect effects, and complex interactions) in determining the eventual community structure of aquatic systems;
• how ecological principles can be used in the study and eventual restoration of rare and endangered species.

Our current work has taken us to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta in Alabama, where we are investigating the interface between the freshwater and marine food webs in this unique ecotone. We have sampled once per month since late 2001, and have generated a tremendous data set on the influence of variation (spatial and temporal) in both abiotic and biotic variables across a large upstream-downstream range of the Delta

GoMRI-funded projects:

Measuring Direct and Indirect Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Coastal Low Salinity Fauna (Year One Block Grant - The Alabama Marine Environmental Science Consortium, Role: Principal Investigator, Project Data Point of Contact)