People

Bio

Michele Dionne directs the research program at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.  The program aims to produce science-based information needed to protect, sustain and restore Gulf of Maine coastal habitats and resources, especially those found in salt marsh estuaries and watersheds. Dionne’s research interests include fish use of aquatic habitats, marsh-estuarine food web ecology, processes of tidal wetland degradation and restoration, and indicators of coastal/marsh/estuarine ecological status.  She is broadly trained in field and experimental aquatic ecology with an undergraduate degree from Bates College, graduate degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill (MS) and Dartmouth College (PhD), and post-doctoral training at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  Other important educational opportunities were a post-bac year spent at the Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole, and two winters in Costa Rica teaching tropical ecology.

Dionne was the first scientist to be employed at the Wells NERR, establishing the Reserve’s research program.  The program has grown to include post-doctoral and staff research associates, post-bac interns, contractors and numerous graduate students, now housed in a new office and laboratory facility.  She currently serves on 10 graduate committees and co-advises graduate students at the University of New Hampshire (as adjunct in Zoology) and the University of Southern Maine (as Biology graduate faculty member).  She serves on a number of committees concerned with coastal science and management at the regional and national levels, and regularly reviews manuscripts for ecology/aquatic journals and funding agencies, including a term as associate editor for the journal Wetlands.  She typically oversees 2-4 externally funded research projects annually, producing requisite reports, some of which find their way into the peer-reviewed literature.  Dionne recently received an award for outstanding service to the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.

Professional Preparation

• 1990 to 1991  Post Doctoral Research Associate in Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Instituteand State University (with J. R. Karr)
• 1984 to 1990  Doctor of Philosophy in Biology (1991) - Dartmouth College (C. L. Folt Advisor)
• 1978 to 1981  Master of Science in Zoology (1982) - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 1977 to 1978  Year in Science at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, and MBL Marine Ecology
• 1972 to 1976  Bachelor of Arts in Biology (1997) at Bates College, Lewiston, ME
• 1974 to 1975  Certificat de Francais Moderne at L’Universite de Neuchatel, Switzerland

Appointments

• Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Research Director  (1991 to present)
• USEPA New England Biological Assessment Wetlands Work Group (beginning 2001)
• Associate Editor, Wetlands (Society of Wetland Scientists; beginning 2001)
• NOAA/Estuarine Reserves Division/Restoration Science Initiative Work Group Co-Chair (1999 to present)
• NOAA/Estuarine Reserves Division/Coastal Training Initiative Work Group (1999 to present)
• NOAA/Estuarine Reserves Division/Action Planning Work Group (1999&2000)
• Member of a succession of Global Programme of Action Coalition for the Gulf of Maine working groups-currently co-chair of the GPAC Coastal Wetlands Restoration Steering Committee (1996 to present)
• Chair, Maine Coastal Nutrient Assessment Advisory Group (1995-1996)
• Adjunct Faculty in Zoology, University of Maine, Orono (Ph.D. committee appointment; 1994-1997)
• Restoration Advisory Board Community Member, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME (1994-present)
• Adjunct Faculty in Zoology, University of New Hampshire (1992 to present)
• Board of Trustees, Great Works Regional Land Trust (1992 to present)
• Adjunct Faculty in Environmental Studies, Antioch New England Graduate School, Keene, NH (taught field courses at Reserve in ecological methods, marine ecology, fisheries ecology (1991 to 1998)
• Regional Association for Research in the Gulf of Maine, Institutional Representative (1991 to present)
• Post Doctoral Research Associate, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (with J.R. Karr; 1990-1991)
• Teaching Assistant, Biology Department, Dartmouth College (ecology and evolution, animal behavior, aquatic ecology, field courses in tropical ecology, animal physiology, embryology; 1984-1989)
• Assistant Instructor, Biology Department, Bates College, Lewiston, ME (core courses in population biology, cell biology, plant biology, animal biology; 1981-1984)
• Teaching Assistant (ecology, vertebrate anatomy), Research Assistant (salt marsh ecology), Univ. North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1978-1981)
• Teaching Assistant, Bates College Field Course in Marine Biology at U Maine Darling Center (1977)
• Year in Science, Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA (1977-1978)

Selected Publications

• Eberhardt,  A.L., D. M. Burdick, and M. Dionne. The Effects of Road Culverts on Nekton in New England Salt Marshes: Implications for Tidal Restoration. Restoration Ecology (in press).
• Moore, G.E. D.M. Burdick, C.R. Peter, A. Leonard_Duarte, and M. Dionne. 2009. Regional assessment of tidal marsh restoration in New England using the restoration performance index.  Final Report submitted to NOAA Restoration Center. 237 pp.
• Wilson, K.R., J.T. Kelley, A. Croitoru, D. M. Dionne, D. Belknap, and R. Steneck. 2009. Salt pools are secondary and dynamic features of the Webhannet Estuary, Wells, Maine, USA. Estuaries and Coasts 33: 855-870
• Fitch, R.A.,  T. Theodose, and M. Dionne. 2009. The relationship between salt marsh upland development, nitrogen, and plant community composition in a northern New England salt marsh.  Wetlands 29:1179-1188.
• Crain, C.M., K. Bromberg, and M. Dionne. 2009. Ecological consequences of hydrologic alterations in estuarine marshes.  Pp. 149-169 in Human impacts on salt marshes: a global perspective (eds. Silliman, B.R., E.D. Grosholz, and M.D. Bertness).  University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Haney, R. M. Dionne, J. Puritz, and D. Rand.  2009. The comparative phylogeography of east coast              estuarine fishes in formerly glaciated sites: persistence versus recolonization in Cyprinodon variegatus ovinus and Fundulus heteroclitus macrolepidotus. Journal of Heredity 100: 284-296.
• Chen, C., M. Dionne, B. Mayes, D. Ward. S. Sturup, and B. Jackson. 2009. Mercury bioavailability and bioaccumulation in estuarine food webs. Environmental Science and Technolgy 43:1804-1810.
• MacKenzie, RA, and Dionne, M. 2008. Habitat heterogeneity: the importance of salt marsh pools and high marsh surfaces to fish production in two Gulf of Maine salt marshes. Marine Ecology Progress Series 368:217-230
• Wilhelm, H. and M. Dionne. 2008.  Salt marsh response to harbor dredging in the Webhannet River estuary, Maine: a tutorial.  NOAA/UNH Cooperative Institute for Environmental Technology.  168 pp.
• Hayes, P. R. Carr, and M. Dionne. 2008. Mapping and restoration inventory of fringing marsh habitat in the Casco Bay estuary.  Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells, ME.  66 pp + data and maps.
• Tyrrell, M., M. Dionne, and J. Edgerly. 2008. Physical factors mediate effects of grazing by a nonindigenous          snail species on salt marsh cordgrass, Spartina alterniflora, in New England salt marshes. ICES Journal   of Marine Science. 65: 746-752.

Additional Resources

Curriculum Vitae