Title: Research Scientist
Institution: Marine Biological Laboratory
Address: 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
Email: jlloret@mbl.edu
Phone: (508) 289-7699
Visit Javier’s Research Website
Research Interests: estuaries, eutrophication, climate change, salt marshes, algae, seagrasses, water quality, modeling
Biographical Sketch:
Dr. Javier Lloret is an ecosystem scientist with a background in marine sciences, ecology and hydrology. His research focuses on the ecology and biogeochemistry of coastal wetlands and estuaries. Elucidating controls on coastal ecosystem functioning is critical because wetlands and estuaries play disproportionally important roles in the global cycling of elements such as carbon and nitrogen. These systems also provide human societies with economically valuable services. Estuaries and wetlands are physically, chemically, and biologically complex environments that are severely impacted by human activities. Disturbances derived from the human occupation of the coast, overexploitation of natural resources, and pollution by excess nutrients and other substances, fundamentally alter how estuaries and wetlands function, and threaten the provision of valuable ecosystem services. Lloret is particularly interested in how these alterations are affecting and are affected by climate change. He uses a combination of field work, laboratory, mesocosm and landscape scale experiments, innovative biogeochemical tracers, and ecosystem modeling approaches to quantify pathways, transformations, and fate of pollutants in wetland and estuarine habitats, and evaluate the effects of human disturbances. He hopes to produce research that informs management and could help design better environmental policies.