Research

Research Oceanographer (2021-Present)

Harmful Algal Bloom Forecasting Branch

As a research oceanographer with the Harmful Algal Bloom Forecasting Branch at NOAA's NCCOS, I work with federal, state, and local scientists, academic partners, and stakeholders to understand and predict harmful algal blooms in lakes and coastal regions around the U.S. Specifically, I use environmental data, satellite remote sensing, and ecological modeling to understand and identify conditions that lead to harmful algal blooms.

Post-doctoral Research (2019-2021)

Biogeochemical cycling in freshwater reservoirs

As a post-doctoral researcher at Virginia Tech, I was involved in several collaborative research projects aimed at understanding biogeochemical cycling in drinking water reservoirs, including the Smart and Connected Water Systems project. Within these larger projects, my three main research objectives include:

Examining greenhouse gas concentrations in anoxic and oxic bottom-waters. The goal is to understand how increasing frequency, duration, and occurrence of anoxia in lakes and reservoirs will impact the global warming potential of these ecosystems in the future (Hounshell et al. 2020).
Measuring fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM) in response to dynamic oxygen concentrations. I seek to understand how rapid fluctuations in bottom water dissolved oxygen concentrations influence the quantity and quality of organic matter and organic carbon.
Using an ecosystem modeling approach to compare changes in carbon cycling between two adjacent reservoirs with contrasting bottom water oxygen conditions. The goal of this project is to understand how changing redox conditions (i.e., dissolved oxygen) influences carbon cycling, from burial to greenhouse gas emissions.

Ph.D. Research (2014-2019)

Organic matter quantity and quality in estuarine ecosystems

My Ph.D. research was focused on understanding organic matter quantity and quality across multiple temporal and spatial scales in estuarine ecosystems. As part of this research, I worked with collaborators at both the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University to understand:

How organic carbon quantity and quality in estuaries is expected to change due to increases in extreme precipitation events (Hounshell et al. 2019; Osburn et al. 2019; Paerl et al. 2019).
Using experimental approaches (nutrient addition bioassays) to understand how different watershed sources of organic nitrogen may be used as a nutrient source by phytoplankton and bacterial assemblages in estuarine ecosystems (Hounshell et al. 2017).
Understand how organic matter quantity and quality will change under future changes in land-use and climate will impact estuarine ecosystem function (Hounshell et al. 2021).

Previous Research

Staff Chemist II (2012-2014)

Chemical and Physical Ecology Laboratory, Mote Marine Laboratory

Prior to graduate school, I was a Staff Chemist II with the Chemical and Physical Ecology Laboratory at Mote Marine Laboratory. While at Mote, I worked on a variety of projects including:

Nutrient biogeochemistry of harmful algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico and local estuaries
Water quality monitoring in local bays and estuaries
Sediment oxygen demand experiment in Tampa Bay, Florida
Developing a community science program for monitoring of local neighborhood lakes
Deploying and maintaining in-situ water quality and meteorological sensors in Charlotte Harbor, Florida

Undergraduate thesis research, University of Virginia (2011-2012)

Microbially-mediated calcite dissolution

While a student at the University of Virginia, I completed an undergraduate thesis under the mentorship of Drs. Aaron Mills and Janet Herman in the Environmental Science Department. Using laboratory experiments mimicking the natural environment, I sought to understand the role of hydrogen-sulfide producing microbes on stimulating calcite dissolution in freshwater, submerged caves located in central Florida (Herman et al. 2013).