Ph.D. candidate
Research technician
Principal Investigator
Dr. Justin Campbell is a marine ecologist at Florida International University with a research program focused on how local and global stressors influence the functioning of marine ecosystems. He received a BSc in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College in 2001 and a PhD in Biological Sciences from Florida International University in 2012. Following his PhD, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the Smithsonian Institution from 2012-2015 and then continued as a Staff Biologist from 2015-2019. Dr. Campbell joined the faculty at Florida International University as an Assistant Professor in 2019, where he leads the Campbell Global Change Biology lab.
Email: jcampbel@fiu.edu
Jezebel Powers is a PhD candidate studying seagrass structure and function under various global change stressors. She received her BS in Marine Biology from the University of California Santa Cruz, where she discovered her interest in seagrass meadows and the valuable ecosystem services they provide. Her dissertation explores how direct (e.g., ocean warming) and indirect (e.g., altered plant-herbivore interactions) stressors shape seagrass structure and ecological functions, namely their capacity to sequester “blue carbon.”
Email: jpowe066@fiu.edu
Ph.D. candidate
William L. Wied is a PhD candidate whose work focuses on the effects of human activities on coastal marine ecosystems, with particular emphasis on fish communities, seagrass ecosystems, and nutrient cycling. His doctoral research examines the role of tropical marine fishes in the recycling and transport of nutrients and how anthropogenic changes to fish communities can alter these ecosystem functions. He receive his BS in Environmental Science from Stony Brook University of New York and also served as a research technician for the Smithsonian Marine Station.
Email: wwied001@fiu.edu
Ph.D. candidate
Hayden Acors is a PhD candidate interested in understanding cross-habitat connectivity and the impacts of environmental change in South Florida. Her work uses field experiments and surveys to examine the ecological roles of invertebrate epifauna communities in seagrass ecosystems and their linkage to adjacent habitats such as coral reefs. By investigating how habitat complexity, predation pressure and environmental stressors influence faunal communities, her work seeks to inform conservation and management efforts across coastal ecosystems. She received her BS in Marine Biology from the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences.
Email: hacors@fiu.edu
Research technician
Aliana Pinero is a research technician in the Global Change Biology Research Lab. She received a B.S. in Marine Biology from Florida International University in 2024, and is broadly interested in how seagrass genetic diversity contributes to restoration success. She has worked closely with Mote Marine Laboratory and Univ. of Texas - Corpus Christi to explore new ways of quantifying the ecological impacts of seagrass genetic diversity and how this diversity may confer resilience in the face of environmental stressors.
Email: apine087@fiu.edu
Macenzie Glosser is second-year undergraduate student at Florida International University working towards her BS in Marine Biology. She is broadly interested in marine botany and how environmental change affects tropical marine ecosystems and plant communities. She is currently a research technician and has worked closely with PhD candidate Hayden Acors on understanding how spatial variation in seagrass habitat structure influences predator-prey interactions. She has also worked on benthic surveys in Biscayne Bay for the detection and monitoring of a new invasive seagrass. Prior to joining the Global Change Biology Lab, she was an intern for the Marine Ecology and Acoustics Lab at FIU.
Email: mglos003@fiu.edu
Research technician
Jasmin Ealom received her BS in Biology with an emphasis in Marine Biology from The University of Wisconsin. After serving as a water quality technician and microbiologist in Wisconsin, she joined the Global Change Biology Research Lab as a research technician. She is currently involved in several projects focusing on spatial variation in predator-prey interactions (w/ Hayden Acors) and assessing the effectiveness of various approaches to removing invasive marine plants. Prior to joining FIU, Jasmin has also participated in a marine study abroad program at Deakin University in Australia where she designed protocols and management plans for turtles in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
Email: jealom@fiu.edu