Elka T. Porter

Biography

Growing up on the North Sea coast in Northern Germany with the Wadden Sea as my backyard, I became interested in the marine sciences at a young age. While in a Diplom (M.S.) program at the Christian-Albrechts Universität, in Kiel, Germany, I had the chance to participate in an exchange year at Brown University that transformed my life. Excursions to the rocky coast and the professors at Brown got me further excited about the marine sciences. In the summers, I had the opportunity to work as a research assistant at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. That did it for me! I was hooked.

Back in Germany, I finished my Diplom degree before joining the Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences program at the University of Maryland, College Park, for my Ph.D. After a brief stint as a research assistant for Ken Sebens studying corals and accompanying a saturation Hydrolab mission in the Florida Keys, I became interested in the effect of oysters and water flow on sediment-water interactions, a topic that is extremely important for water quality in places like the Chesapeake Bay. This theme is an integral part of my research to this day.

After a post-doc studying physical-biological-chemical interactions and several years teaching courses such as the Ecology of the Chesapeake Bay, I am now at SMCM. One of my goals is to give students summer research opportunities like I had at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In summer 2013, a student accompanied me to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center for my summer research. The study ultimately resulted in her honor’s thesis. More recently, for most summers since 2015, I have been doing my summer research at the Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL) in St. Leonard, Southern Maryland.

My research deals with the effect of water flow and organisms on sediment-water interactions (or benthic-pelagic coupling processes) and subsequent effects on water quality. In some of my experiments, I use shear turbulence resuspension mesocosms (STURM), special tanks that I designed and that I set up in the summer of 2015 at the PEARL, for summer research. Due to climate change, the frequency and magnitude of storms is predicted to increase and I can mimic storms and tidal resuspension in my experiments. For seven summers since 2015, my students and I have successfully run STURM experiments at the PEARL.

In the STURM tanks, I can mimic realistic tidal and episodic resuspension without overmixing the water column, add infaunal organisms such as hard clams, and observe the effect of water flow and organisms on water quality and ecosystem processes. In addition, I have found, for example, that four weeks of tidal resuspension compared to non-resuspension decreased water clarity, released nutrients into the water column with subsequent increases in phytoplankton abundance, decreased microphytobenthos biomass, induced a small brown tide bloom and changed what macrofauna grew up in the sediments. Overall, tidal resuspension can decrease water quality and change a bottom-dominated system into one that is controlled by the water column. Moreover, I also examine the effect of water flow and organisms on sediment-water interactions in smaller-scale approaches.

Recent Publications (*undergraduate co-authors)

Porter ET, Cornwell JC (2023) Mesocosm Approaches to the Examination of Benthic-Pelagic Coupling, with emphasis on turbulence. Special Issue on: "Life in turbulent waters: exploring unsteady biota-flow interactions across scales", Limnology and Oceanography https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12425 Published online Sept 28, 2023.

Porter ET, Blickenstaff S*, Cornwell JC, Jackson M, Tolbert SN* (2022) Effect of tidal resuspension with oyster biodeposits on the nutrient and oxygen dynamics. Marine Ecology Progress Series. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13995

Porter ET, Johnson BJ*, Sanford LP (2020) Effects of hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) density and bottom shear stress on cohesive sediment erodibility and implications for benthic-pelagic coupling. Journal of Marine Research 78(2): 91-130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1357/002224020834016664

Porter ET, Robins E*, Davis, S*, Lacouture R, Cornwell J (2020) Effects of resuspension of eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica biodeposits on phytoplankton community structure. Marine Ecology Progress Series 640: 79-105. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13277

Porter, ET, Porter FS (2018) A strain gauge monitor (SGM) for continuous valve gape measurements in bivalve molluscs in response to laboratory induced diel-cycling hypoxia and pH. Journal of Visualized Experiments 138, e57404, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3791/57404

Porter ET, Franz H*, Lacouture R. (2018) Impact of Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica biodeposit resuspension on the seston, nutrient, phytoplankton and zooplankton dynamics: A mesocosm experiment. Marine Ecology Progress Series 586:21-40.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12417.

Porter ET, Sanford LP, Porter FS, Mason RP (2018) STURM: Resuspension mesocosms with realistic shear and turbulence for benthic-pelagic coupling studies: Design and Applications. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 499:35-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2017.11.001

Porter ET, Breitburg DL (2016) Eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, valve gape behavior under diel-cycling hypoxia. Marine Biology 163:218. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-2980-1

Porter ET, Mason RP, Sanford LP (2013) Effects of shear stress and hard clams on seston, microphytobenthos and nitrogen dynamics in mesocosms with tidal resuspension. Marine Ecology Progress Series 479:25-45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10206

Porter ET, Mason RP, Sanford LP  (2010) Effect of tidal resuspension on benthic-pelagic coupling in an experimental ecosystem study. Marine Ecology Progress Series 413:33-53. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08709

Recently Taught Course

MRNE 220/220L, Physical Oceanography, Lecture and Laboratory, Fall 2022

MRNE 110/110L, Introduction to Marine Science, Lecture and Laboratory, Spring 2023