Profile of Dr. Robert Twilley

Louisiana State University
Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA
Phone: (225) 578-8806
Fax: (225) 578-6423
rtwilley@lsu.edu

Current Position: Professor, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science and Director, Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute, Louisiana State University

Education: Ph.D. Botany/Systems Ecology, University of Florida, 1982

Dr. Twilley’s expertise lies in understanding the ecology and management practices of wetlands on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and in Latin America. His research focuses on nutrient cycling in mangrove, coastal, and tropical ecosystems, and on incorporating ecological models into ecosystem management.  Through this research he is working to develop fundamentals of ecosystem science by describing biogeochemical processes (denitrification, nutrient burial, benthic nutrient fluxes) that determine the function of coastal ecosystems as either a source or sink of primary nutrients to near shore environments. He uses modeling, field manipulations, and mesocosm techniques to test hypotheses of nutrient cycling in coastal ecosystems. A large part of his career has been spent determining the role of mangroves in the fate of carbon and nutrients in tropical estuaries. He recently developed a set of ecosystem models with which to assess the response of mangrove wetlands to environmental change. He has also been involved with the restoration and nutrient dynamics of coastal ecosystems of the Florida Coastal Everglades. Dr. Twilley was co-author of report by the Pew Center for Global Climate Change entitled Coastal and Marine Ecosystems and Global Climate Change. His current focus is developing ecosystem models, both conceptual and simulation, to forecast the rehabilitation of coastal and wetland ecosystems.