My research focuses on the ecology, evolution and ecotoxicology of marine and freshwater benthic invertebrates. I am interested in the factors that control the distribution and abundance patterns of meiofauna (benthic metazoans < 1 mm in body length) and macrofauna. Laboratory, microcosm and field manipulative experiments are used in my laboratory to examine the effects of sediment contamination, predation, nutrient addition, disturbance and flow-mediated dispersal on benthic populations and food webs. Current projects address the joint effects of nutrient addition and fish exclusion on the benthos of tidal creeks (http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/tide), the use of stable isotope enrichment to elucidate estuarine food webs, the effects of carbon dioxide sequestration (to mitigate the Greenhouse Effect) on deep-sea benthos, contaminant ecotoxicology (including issues related to the effects of contaminant mixtures, assimilation efficiency and bioavailability), and the effects of sand mining for barrier island restoration on near-shore benthic communities and food webs.
Deegan, L. A., J. L. Bowen, D. Drake, J. W. Fleeger, C. T. Friedrichs, K. A. Galván, J. E. Hobbie, C. S. Hopkinson, M. Johnson, D. S. Johnson, L. E. Lemay, E. Miller, B. J. Peterson, C. Picard, S. Sheldon, M. Sutherland, J. Vallino, and R. S. Warren. 2007. Susceptibility of salt marshes to nutrient enrichment and predator removal. Ecological Applications 17:S42-S63.
Fleeger, J.W., Gust, K.A., Marlborough, S.J., Tita, G. 2007. Mixtures of metals and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons elicit complex, nonadditive toxicological interactions in meiobenthic copepods. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 26: 1677-1685.
Johnson, D. S., J. W. Fleeger, K. A. Galván, and E. B. Moser. 2007. Worm holes and their space-time continuum: Spatial and temporal variability of macroinfaunal annelids in a northern New England salt marsh. Estuaries and Coasts 30:226-237.
Thistle, D., L. Sedlacek, K. R. Carman, J. W. Fleeger, and J. P. Barry. 2007. Emergence in the deep sea: Evidence from harpacticoid copepods. Deep Sea Research 54:1008-1014.
Fleeger, J. W., K. R. Carman, P. B. Weisenhorn, H. Sofranko, T. Marshall, D. Thistle, and J. P. Barry. 2006. Simulated sequestration of anthropogenic carbon dioxide at a deep-sea site: effects on nematode abundance and biovolume. Deep Sea Research 53:1135-1147.
Lu, X., D. D. Reible, and J. W. Fleeger. 2006. Bioavailability of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in field-contaminated Anacostia River (Washington, DC) sediment. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 25:2869-2874.
Atilla, N., J. W. Fleeger, and C. M. Finelli. 2005. Effects of habitat complexity and hydrodynamics on the abundance and diversity of small invertebrates colonizing artificial substrates. Journal of Marine Research 63:1151-1172.
Quiñones-Rivera, Z. J., and J. W. Fleeger. 2005. The grazing effects of grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio, on epiphytic microalgae associated with Spartina alterniflora. Estuaries 28:274-285.
Thistle, D., Carman, K.R., Sedlacek, L., Brewer, P.G., Fleeger, J.W., Barry, J.P. 2005. Deep-ocean, sediment-dwelling animals are sensitive to sequestered carbon dioxide. Marine Ecology Progress Series 289: 1-4.
Fleeger, J. W., K. R. Carman, and R. M. Nisbet. 2003. Indirect
effects of contaminants on aquatic ecosystems. Science of the Total Environment
317:207-233.
Rocha-Olivares, A., J. W. Fleeger, and D. W. Foltz. 2001. Decoupling of molecular
and morphological evolution in deep lineages of a meiobenthic harpacticoid copepod.
Molecular Biology and Evolution 18:1088-1102.