Anna Armitage

Dr. Anna Armitage is a broadly trained community ecologist with over 20 years of experience working in coastal wetlands. Her research utilizes multivariate, interdisciplinary field studies to study trophic interactions and anthropogenic impacts in coastal wetland habitats, including marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses. Her current research projects include studies about the effects of nutrient enrichment on ecological interactions and processes in the mangrove-marsh ecotone and other coastal wetland habitats. She has extensive experience conducting large-scale field surveys and managing and analyzing complex datasets. She has mentored numerous graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral research scholars, and has leadership roles in the TAMUG graduate program and multiple scientific societies.

Coastal ecosystem dynamics and processes, management of restored and anthropogenically-impacted habitats, watershed, coastal habitat management and restoration

The Coastal and Wetlands Ecology Laboratory examines the community-level interactions and processes that structure coastal ecosystems. Our work spans many coastal habitats, including salt marshes, mangroves, tidal mudflats, seagrass beds, and tidal freshwater wetlands. Dr. Armitage and her team are particularly interested in changes in trophic interactions following habitat restoration, nutrient enrichment, or other anthropogenic alterations. In addition, research focuses on how plant and animal diversity influence ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, nursery habitat, and water quality. The lab utilizes field experiments and a wide array of analytical procedures (stable isotopes, HPLC, stoichiometry) to investigate community dynamics in tropical, subtropical, and temperate environments.

Glazner, R., J. Blennau, A.R. Armitage. 2020. Mangroves alter predator-prey interactions by enhancing prey refuge value in a mangrove-marsh ecotone. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 526: 151336, doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2020.151336

Charles, S.P., J.S. Kominoski, A.R. Armitage, H. Guo, C.A. Weaver, and S.C. Pennings. 2020. Quantifying how changing mangrove cover affects ecosystem carbon storage in coastal wetlands. Ecology 101(2): e02916, DOI:10.1002/ecy.2916.

Osland, M.J., R.H. Day, C.T. Hall, L.C. Feher, A.R. Armitage, J. Cebrian, K.H. Dunton, A.R. Hughes, D.A. Kaplan, A.K. Langston, A. Macy, C.A. Weaver, G.H. Anderson, K. Cummins, I.C. Feller, C.M. Snyder. 2020. Temperature thresholds for black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) freeze damage, mortality, and recovery in North America: refining tipping points for range expansion in a warming climate. Journal of Ecology, doi:10.1111/1365‐2745.13285.

Armitage, A.R., C.A. Weaver, J.S. Kominoski, and S.C. Pennings. 2019. Resistance to hurricane effects varies among wetland vegetation types in the marsh-mangrove ecotone. Estuaries and Coasts, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-019-00577-3

Weaver, C.A. and A.R. Armitage. 2018. Nutrient enrichment shifts mangrove height distribution: implications for coastal woody encroachment. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0193617. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193617