Josiah Waters
Graduate Program in Marine Biology
College of Charleston
Josiah’s Story
Perhaps it was due to the sea anemones that he and his sisters had found on a rocky outcropping by the ocean, or maybe it was a result of his mother’s engaging homeschool lessons; either way, Josiah Waters already knew that he wanted to be a biologist by the time he was twelve years old. He continued to pursue that career, and a decade after watching the marine life on that rocky outcropping, he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Lenoir-Rhyne University where he studied cnidarian bleaching in green hydra and… anemones. He then earned a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston. It was during this time in graduate school that Josiah was awarded a research grant from the Slocum-Lunz Foundation which allowed him to use molecular techniques to study the community dynamics of saltmarsh benthic microalgae. By graduation, Josiah had come to realize his interest in ecology, and he now works as an ecologist with an environmental consulting firm in the Charleston, SC area, applying his background in biology with the hope of helping clients balance development and natural resource conservation.
An avid outdoorsman, Josiah enjoys spending his free time fishing, hiking, scuba-diving, and mountain biking. Even with his busy work schedule and many outdoor adventures, he still finds joy in simply searching the shoreline for sea anemones.
Josiah’s Research
Benthic microalgae (BMA), like other microbes, have long been thought to be cosmopolitan in time and space, limited only by environmental conditions. More recently, it has been found that BMA do exhibit spatial and temporal dispersal limitations, and while the drivers and patterns of spatial dispersal limitation have been studied to some extent, studies examining temporal variation in BMA communities are lacking. In this study, DNA metabarcoding was used to characterize diatom communities at three temporal scales (seasonal, lunar phase, and tidal cycle) over one year. Environmental parameters (31) were measured in order to identify potential drivers of any observed variation. Significant differences in community structure, biomass, and α-diversity were observed across season, particular lunar phases, and certain tidal cycles. Purely environmental factors did have some effect, but BMA community variation seemed to be primarily directed by temporal factors, temporally-structured environmental events, and stochastic (or unmeasured) processes. These results show that time and environmental conditions worked together to produce fairly predictable patterns in BMA variability (at least at larger temporal scales). While further studies are necessary, it is possible that this increased understanding of BMA community variation will allow researchers to predict BMA and ecosystem changes in response to changes in the environment.