Visiting Researcher

Benoit Lebreton Comes to HRI to Study Coastal Food Webs

Visiting researcher Dr. Benoit Lebreton spent three weeks at HRI in June 2022 collaborating with members of the Coastal Conservation & Restoration Lab under Chair Dr. Jennifer Pollack.

Lebreton is an associate professor at the Joint Research Unit Littoral, Environment and Societies, at the University of La Rochelle in La Rochelle, France. Lebreton earned his Ph.D. in marine ecology in 2008 and was then a postdoctoral research associate at HRI in 2010 through 2011.

While visiting, Lebreton studied the food resources needed by reefs, including oyster reefs in Coastal Bend bays and serpulid worm tube reefs like those in Baffin Bay. These reefs, and their food resources, can support biodiversity that serves as an overall indicator of reef health.

Lebreton said that by better understanding the relationships between producers and consumers in these areas, researchers can better learn how to rebuild reefs like those developed by HRI’s Sink Your Shucks™ oyster recycling program.

HRI Conference Booths in 2022

HRI was represented by staff and research groups at multiple conferences and events throughout 2022. From GOMCON to Earth Day Bay Day and beyond, peers and the public had opportunities to get hands-on with science at some tables and learn more about the HRI model, our research, and our commitment to furthering science that benefits Gulf of Mexico ecosystems.