Agricultural and Life Sciences (IFAS)
Hensel Lab
Led by Marc J S Hensel · Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences
What we study
The lab studies how climate change affects coastal ecosystems, focusing on biodiversity and climate resilience. They use field experiments, natural history, and predictive modeling to understand species interactions and management impacts.
What working here is like
- Fieldwork
- Computational
- Plants
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 4
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Biodiversity's role in climate resilience
Describing how biodiversity contributes to climate resilience in coastal ecosystems.
Predictive modeling for coastal management
Using models to evaluate the effectiveness of coastal management strategies.
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Effects of climate-shifting species on food webs
Quantifying how species shifts due to climate change impact coastal food webs.
Megafauna control of coastal plant communities
Determining how large animals influence plant communities in coastal Florida.
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Ecosystem technology (ecotech): Harnessing natural processes to address global challenges
2026 · Science Advances
Proposes a new approach to solve global challenges by using natural processes at ecosystem and biosphere levels.
- Climate change is reshaping seagrass futures: novel environments and opportunities along coastlines and across oceans
2026 · BioScience
Predicts how climate change will shift seagrass ecosystems and their benefits.
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- Changing foundation species in Chesapeake Bay (USA): implications for faunal communities of two dominant seagrass species
2025 · Marine Ecology Progress Series
Studies how shifts in seagrass species affect animal communities in Chesapeake Bay.
- Long‐term data reveal that grazer density mediates climatic stress in salt marshes
2024 · Ecology
Finds that drought and snail density together reduce plant biomass in salt marshes over 22 years.
- Mesopredator release moderates trophic control of plant biomass in a Georgia salt marsh
2024 · Ecology
Tests whether removing predators affects plant growth in salt marshes over three years.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
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