Joel Carr, Ph.D.
Biography
I am a research ecologist with the coastal processes group currently examining and modelling biotic and abiotic processes controlling marsh upland boundary migration. My background is in environmental sciences and mathematics, with a focus on using modeling to investigate non-linear dynamics in ecosystems. I have a background in vegetation modified transport processes and much of my work focuses on examining the stability and resilience of seagrass (Zostera marina) to environmental drivers/stressors.
My research interests are varied but tend to focus on ecogeomorphic and ecohydrologic feedbacks mechanisms and the emergence of alternate state dynamics, complex networks, human-environment interactions,the population-water-food nexus, inequality, transport processes, sediment dynamics and noise induced phenomena among others
Science and Products
Vulnerability Assessment of Available Habitat for Wintering Black Ducks within the Refuge System in the Chesapeake Bay
American black duck (Anas rubripes) utilize inland and tidal freshwater and brackish marshes throughout the Chesapeake Bay and are considered to be an indicator species of the ecosystem’s health. Thus, conserving and increasing black duck habitats will subsequently benefit the general health of the bay. The goal of this study was to create a mechanistic model to determine the amount...
The Global food‐energy‐water nexus
Water availability is a major factor constraining humanity's ability to meet the future food and energy needs of a growing and increasingly affluent human population. Water plays an important role in the production of energy, including renewable energy sources and the extraction of unconventional fossil fuels that are expected to become important...
D'Odorico, Paolo; Frankel Davis, Kyle; Rosa, Lorenzo; Carr, Joel A.; Chiarelli, Davide; Dell’Angelo, Jampel; Gephart, Jessica; MacDonald, Graham K.; Seekell, David A.; Suweis, Samir; Rulli, Maria Cristina Exploring the impacts of seagrass on coupled marsh-tidal flat morphodynamics
Intertidal coastal environments are prone to changes induced by sea level rise, increases in storminess, temperature, and anthropogenic disturbances. It is unclear how changes in external drivers may affect the dynamics of low energy coastal environments because their response is non-linear, and characterized by many thresholds and discontinuities...
Carr, Joel A.; Mariotti, Giulio; Fahgerazzi, Sergio; McGlathery, Karen; Wiberg, Patricia Sea level driven marsh expansion in a coupled model of marsh erosion and migration
Coastal wetlands are among the most valuable ecosystems on Earth, where ecosystem services such as flood protection depend nonlinearly on wetland size and are threatened by sea level rise and coastal development. Here we propose a simple model of marsh migration into adjacent uplands and couple it with existing models of seaward edge erosion and...
Kirwan, Matthew L.; Walters, David C.; Reay, William G.; Carr, Joel A. Spatially explicit feedbacks between seagrass meadow structure, sediment and light: Habitat suitability for seagrass growth
In shallow coastal bays where nutrient loading and riverine inputs are low, turbidity, and the consequent light environment are controlled by resuspension of bed sediments due to wind-waves and tidal currents. High sediment resuspension and low light environments can limit benthic primary productivity; however, both currents and waves are affected...
Carr, Joel A.; D'Odorico, Paul; McGlathery, Karen; Wiberg, Patricia L. Tree island pattern formation in the Florida Everglades
The Florida Everglades freshwater landscape exhibits a distribution of islands covered by woody vegetation and bordered by marshes and wet prairies. Known as “tree islands”, these ecogeomorphic features can be found in few other low gradient, nutrient limited freshwater wetlands. In the last few decades, however, a large percentage of...
Carr, Joel A.; D'Odorico, P.; Engel, Victor C.; Redwine, Jed