I am very grateful to the Wetlands Foundation for supporting my dissertation research through the Field Travel Grant. It allowed me to do field work during a challenging year, with travel restrictions curtailing the field season and necessitating adjustments to project plans. Fortunately, I was able to travel to my project region in early 2020, to survey seagrass meadows in Eastern Pacific estuaries of Baja California, México. Using side-scan sonar and drone surveys, I studied seasonal dynamics of eelgrass populations (Zostera marina) in shallow lagoons of Estero Punta Banda and Bahía de San Quintín. By analyzing organic matter characteristics of sediment and primary producer samples, I estimated organic carbon fluxes between salt marshes and seagrass meadows and found that these blue carbon habitats are tightly linked, with seagrass material buried in marsh sediment and vice versa. The samples I was able to collect due to the generous funding of the Wetland Foundation contributed to my doctoral dissertation and I am very thankful for their support.
