Because of his groundbreaking 

 research, Posey received the Faculty 

 Scholarship Award from UNC-W last year. 

 He was one of only two professors to 

 receive the award. 



"Martin is one of our most engaged 

 faculty members," says Scott Quackenbush, 

 chair of the UNC-W Department of 

 Biological Sciences. "He has more to do on 

 one given day than three people." 



Troy Alphin, a research associate and 

 long-time collaborator with Posey, agrees. 

 "He is probably one of the most enthusiastic 

 people in the research field," says Alphin. 

 "He doesn't do anything half way. His 

 interest in water quality issues is tied 

 together in all his projects." 



Posey developed an affinity for the 

 water while growing up in rural southern 

 Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. 



"I lived on a creek," he says. "My dad 

 was a small-time fisherman. I helped with 

 the nets — all small stuff." 



His interest in estuarine systems led 

 him to study zoology at the University of 

 North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he did 

 an honors thesis on mud shrimp. 



"The diversity of organisms got me 

 into benthic ecology from worms to mud 

 shrimp," he says. "The diversity on flats is 

 so amazing. It all intrigues me." 



In Posey's doctoral thesis at the 

 University of Oregon, he continued his 

 interest in ghost shrimp — an invertebrate 

 that can kill oysters and is used as bait for 

 fisheries. 



"Once, I sunk in the mud," he says. 

 "I had to swim and crawl my way out of a 

 mud slurry." 



For several years, Posey worked in the 

 Pacific Northwest on seagrass beds and 

 other projects. In the fall of 1989, Posey 

 began teaching at UNC-W. 



At UNC-W, Posey juggles several jobs 

 — from teaching and research to managing, 

 along with Alphin, a staff of 14 assistants 

 and students in the Benthic Ecology Lab where 

 they conduct experiments on bottom fauna. 



"The lab is a beehive of activity 

 because Martin has to collaborate with 10 

 other faculty members," says Quackenbush. 



One of the lab's ongoing projects is its 



involvement with the Cape Fear River 

 Program, a collaborative program that 

 involves numerous researchers and focuses 

 on the dynamics of the state's largest river 

 system as well as the effects of develop- 

 ment on the river's health. 



"We have discovered information 

 about the effects of hurricanes on the 

 bottom community," says Posey. "We 

 found dramatic deterioration after hurri- 

 canes Fran and Bonnie and to a lesser 

 extent after Floyd. However, we also found 

 that the bottom community recovered the 

 spring after the hurricane, indicating that 

 bottom animals are resilient." 



In his work on the Cape 

 Fear, Posey also documented 

 a gradual and steady decline 

 of bottom species at certain 

 locations over the past five 

 years. "That may indicate 

 chronic effects or gradual 

 deterioration in our river 

 system or the cumulative 

 effects of multiple hurri- 

 canes," he says. 



When Posey isn't 

 teaching or overseeing the 

 lab, he is motoring on a vessel 

 to one of his research sites. 



For his ongoing Sea 

 Grant project on blue crab 

 habitats — particularly 

 juvenile crabs — he samples 

 areas near the Cape Fear and 

 New rivers. In North 

 Carolina, blue crabs are the top commercial 

 fishery, generating more than $32 million 

 from hard crab harvests in 2000, according 

 to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. 



In the past, most researchers had 

 thought that young crabs, which face the 

 greatest danger from the claws of bigger 

 crabs, would rather migrate to seagrass beds. 



While studying the thumbnail-sized 

 young crabs, Posey discovered that marsh 

 areas along the state's southeastern coast 

 may be used extensively as nursery areas for 

 blue crabs. 



What makes Posey's research so useful 

 is his choice of a region — one that hasn't 

 been studied much for its crab habitats and 



has no seagrass beds. 



"These crabs may use low-salinity 

 areas — especially in the absence of 

 submerged vegetation." Posey says. The 

 study emphasizes the potential management 

 importance of these riverine systems, he adds. 



Trawl Research 



Blue crabs aren't Posey's only area of 

 interest. 



Through a North Carolina Fisheries 

 Resource Grant administered by North 

 Carolina Sea Grant, Posey and Sea Grant 

 researcher Larry Cahoon studied the effects 

 of experimental shrimp and crab trawling on 

 bottom communities. They worked 



44 HIGH SEASON 2001 



