Front from left: Barry Aronhime, Raynie Bambarger & Yasoma Hulathduwa

Rear from left: Gerald George & Dr. Kenneth Brown

Students in Dr. Brown's Laboratory have a wide array of interests broadly defined as aquatic ecology. Louisiana allows us the unique opportunity to study freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems in a proximate setting. Within a two hour trip from Baton Rouge researchers have access to clear, spring fed, fast-moving streams, turbid, meandering bayous, the nations largest riverine swamp, and one of the world's most productive coastal ecosystems, the Mississippi/Atchafalaya delta. Most of our work involves benthic macroinvertebrates and nekton. Key areas of research include population dynamics, community composition, species diversity and distribution, predator-prey interactions, feeding ecology, competition, ecological modeling, conservation, and others. Current projects are investigating: deterrents to black drum on Louisiana oyster leases, movements and site fidelity of black drum on oyster reefs, foraging of blue and stone crabs on hooked mussels, species diversity and distribution of freshwater mussels in north-eastern Louisiana, competition among mud crabs, bioenergetics of mud crabs, effects of hydrocarbons and salinity on oyster reef colonization, and more.

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