Ecological Process in Pattern Generation in Tropical Coral- Seagrass Reefscapes
ECOLOGICAL PROCESS IN PATTERN GENERATION IN TROPICAL CORAL- SEAGRASS REEFSCAPES BY STEPHANIE M. BILODEAU A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Biology May 2019 Winston-Salem, North Carolina Approved By: Miles Silman, PhD, Advisor Michael Anderson, PhD, Chair Gregory Asner, PhD ii DEDICATION For my family, especially my parents Susan Rueter and Bill Bilodeau, who have always supported my love of exploration and my journey toward marine science. And for Cliff Lerner, the man who first introduced me to the Belize Barrier Reef. Thank you for starting me on this adventure. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I want to thank my advisor, Dr. Miles Silman, without whom this entire thesis and the projects contained therein would never have happened, for his enthusiasm and support. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Michael Anderson and Dr. Greg Asner for their time and valuable insight into my research. I want to thank all the members of the Silman lab and my fellow graduate students who supported me throughout my degree, especially John Gorelick, my partner in crime and co-founder of the Silman lab Surf division. Special thanks to Austin Schwartz, my undergraduate field assistant and fellow researcher in Belize, and to Connor Walsh, our Divemaster and “undergraduate help” for the summer. Thanks to Tati Stroud, who led my team of undergraduates at Wake Forest in classifying thousands of images from the field, and to the entire BIO 312 course for spring 2019.
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