On October 16, Research Director Kristin Wilson, Research Assistant Amelie Jensen and University of New Hampshire TIDES Student Sydney Nick traveled to the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point Campus to attend the New England Estuarine Research Society Fall Meeting. This semi-annual meeting consisted of oral presentations, poster presentations, and plenty of opportunities to mingle and socialize with the other attendees ranging from scientists to professors, students, and NOAA officials.

The theme of Thursday’s oral presentations was "Coastal Resilience to Climate Change: Emerging Strategies." These talks highlighted the importance of resilience, within an ecosystem but also within communities. The reserve’s very own Christine Feurt gave a talk titled Resilience is the New Sustainability — Implications for Research, Practice and Policy.

Friday was a jam-packed day for all attendees. Beginning with oral presentations centered around "Salt Marsh Dynamics: Drivers and Ecosystem Response," where Kristin Wilson shared with the audience some of the research that has been going on at the Wells Reserve on green crabs and marsh morphology. Invasive crabs in New England were actually a popular topic that day, as well as the invasive phragmites plant.

Talks continued Friday on "Estuarine Fluxes and Estuarine Interactions" and posters were presented on a variety of topics including macroinvertebrates, nutrients within estuaries, and turtles nesting in wetlands.

Overall, the meeting provided the perfect opportunity for sharing interesting research, collaborating on new ideas, and networking within the science community!