Mangroves are ecologically and globally important, and communities around the world depend on mangroves for coastal protection, carbon sequestration, and food resources associated to mangrove-dependent fisheries. Mangrove forests support a high diversity of microorganisms present in the soil, the water column, and most notably as thick biofilms on aerial and belowground roots. Microbes perform many beneficial functions for their mangrove hosts such as helping to acquire nutrients, resist diseases and adapt to salinity stress, but the majority of microbes are unknown and uncharacterized.

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) systems and the connection of people to mangroves have been overlooked in marine science research, conservation, and policy. Dismissal of LEK has resulted in harmful global impacts to local communities and marine life. Dominant forms of knowledge like science are western based frameworks that tend to prioritize deterministic quantitative, large scale knowledge that in some instances it can operate under extractive ways, in contrast LEK is qualitative oral record that encompasses culture and local understanding and is applied to daily living and traditional subsistence practices.

I had the opportunity to co-lead my first ocean cruise in 2023. This project emerged as a collaboration with Dr. Tricia Light. We worked together and wrote a proposal to do science on the Scripps research vessel (RV) Sally Ride. We also proposed and run a grad student seminar with the help of mentors and other researchers. The Ocean cruise: The cruise offered an educational experience to students who might not have otherwise had the opportunity to go to sea.