HBOI HAB Lab

Sarah Newton successfully defended her thesis titled "Examining Relationships Between Sediment Nutrients and Halodule wrightii in the Southern Indian River Lagoon".
Congrats Sarah! We can't wait to see where your career goes next:)

Our own Sarah Newton wins Best Graduate Student Oral Presentation at Southeastern Estuarine Research Society (SEERS) 2025 meeting. This is her second award for her presentation. We are so proud!

Last week, Dr. Lapointe’s lab made a splash in the Florida Keys. The team is collecting water and macroalgae from multiple reef sites within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This research serves as a restudy of Dr. Lapointe’s work from several decades ago, providing valuable insights into long-term changes in nutrient enrichment. Elevated nutrient concentrations in reef ecosystems can trigger a cascade of detrimental effects, compromising reef health. ***Note: as these sites are from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, this means they are no take sites. We are granted permissions to accomplish this work with a letter of authorization (LOA) from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Big congratulations to Sarah for winning the IRLNEP Promising Scientist Award! 🎉 Her talk on examining the relationships between sediment nutrients and Halodule wrightii in the Southern Indian River Lagoon was impressive. 🏅👩🏻‍🔬

Let's go fly a drone! Drones are fun but also provide our team with important imagery data. Pictured is our team practicing their piloting skills as we prepare for the coming field season. Safe and happy flying this week :)
Please note our team featured here are Part 107 Commercial certified with the FAA. LAANC: ALTURQE969C0

Happy holidays and cheers to a new year from HBOI HAB Lab! We celebrated with the biggest pizza we could find:)

Reef Relief will be hosting their annual meeting this Wednesday with our very own Dr. Brian Lapointe providing a presentation on water quality. He will offer an update on the unprecedented toxic dinoflagellate blooms and “spinning fish” observed in the Lower Keys. This event is FREE. Doors will open at 5:00 PM for cocktail hour, followed by a brief presentation recapping Reef Relief’s effort during the year 2024. If you can't attend the event in person it will be streamed virtually!

Enjoy engaging and informative discussions from Dr. Brian Lapointe and Ian Wilson-Navarro.

Reef Relief will be hosting their annual meeting this Wednesday with our very own Dr. Brian Lapointe providing a presentation on water quality. He will offer an update on the unprecedented toxic dinoflagellate blooms and “spinning fish” observed in the Lower Keys. This event is FREE. Doors will open at 5:00 PM for cocktail hour, followed by a brief presentation recapping Reef Relief’s effort during the year 2024. If you can't attend the event in person it will be streamed virtually! Enjoy engaging and informative discussions from Dr. Brian Lapointe and Ian Wilson-Navarro. #reefrelief #research #waterquality #floridakeys

Happy Halloween from the HAB Lab team! 🎃 Cast your votes for our pumpkins in the cafe! Such a great turn out, everyone's pumpkins looked amazing. Featuring our pumpkins, Siren's Song and Sargassum Creature of the Indian River Lagoon. We had so much fun making them!

Congratulations to master’s candidate Sarah Newton! She has completed her field work and moved onto working on her thesis “Examining relationships between sediment nutrients & Halodule wrightii in the southern Indian River Lagoon”. Keep an eye out for her defense coming up this spring!

Introducing 🥁 the newest member of our lab, Paige Aldred! This fall Paige started as our new Environmental Science master's student. She moved to Florida from the suburbs of Philadelphia. She completed her undergraduate degree in environmental science at the University of Delaware, where she researched microplastics, PFAs, and stormwater salinization's impact on land cover. Paige worked in environmental insurance this past year and was further exposed to the effects of pollutants. Her academic and professional experiences cultivated a passion for research on water quality and its impacts on ecosystem health, this interest attracted her to Dr. Lapointe’s lab. Paige’s master's research will examine the effects of algal blooms on South Florida reefs. Paige has made a great addition to our team and we’re thrilled to have her!

Our team is TECTA ready! The TECTA B16 will bring our water quality monitoring goals to another level. 💪 Now our group will be able to determine the presence of bacteria that are indicators of f***l pollution. 💩 YUCK! But, knowledge is power, and we are excited to expand the capabilities of our lab to test for f***l pollution!

Dr. Brewton, one of the HAB Lab principal investigator's, will discuss harmful algal blooms and seagrass losses in the Indian River Lagoon in her Lagoon at Noon presentation today.

Join us at the Palm Bay Lagoon House or on Zoom for our October Lagoon at Noon program!

Dr. Rachel Brewton from the FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute will be presenting on Seagrasses & Seaweeds in the Indian River Lagoon (& Beyond!)

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