Dr. James D. Simons

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Field of Focus
  • Ecology
  • Fisheries
  • Ecological Indicators
  • Habitat Loss
  • Overfishing and Bycatch
  • Restoration
  • Geographic Information Science (GIS)
  • Modeling
  • Biological Oceanography
Area of Expertise
Marine Ecology; Seagrass and Oyster Reef Mapping; Trophodynamics of Estuarine and Continental Shelf Fish Communities; Estuarine Ecological Indicators, Species interactions
Education
  • Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, U.S.A.
  • M.S. in Environmental Biology, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A.
  • B.A. in Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.

Associate Research Scientist, Center for Coastal Studies, Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi

Dr. Simons is currently building food webs for fish species that traditionally have had high levels of Hg and that are consumed by humans on a regular basis, and beginning construction of a species interaction database (beginning with trophic interactions) for the Gulf of Mexico. This project is funded by GOMA. He is currently a member of the GMFMC's ESSC, and GOMA's EIA and WQ (Hg Subcommittee) PITs.

Previously, while at TPWD's Coastal Fisheries he was Co-PI for a NOAA funded benthic mapping project for the Texas Coastal Bend, and Co-PI for an oyster reef mapping project in Copano Bay, TX. In addition, he managed the Texas component of the EPA's National Coastal Assessment from 2000 to 2006, and was co-PI on an oyster reef mapping project using side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler in Lavaca Bay, TX. He served as the state co-chair of the Monitoring Sub-Committee of the Gulf of Mexico Program's Monitoring, Modeling and Research Committee, and was a member of the HABSOS case study workgroup. Previously Dr. Simons has studied organic carbon production and transport from a freshwater tidal marsh (1982-1984), mapped seagrasses in the Maryland Chesapeake Bay (1984-1986), developed non-point source pollution prediction models in three small Chesapeake Bay sub-watersheds and various other environmental remote sensing studies. He has studied food habits of fishes on the continental shelf of Mississippi and Alabama (1987-1990) and mapped oyster reefs in Galveston Bay, TX (1990-1991).

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