Research Summary

Dr. Stunz's research is focused on understanding the relative value of habitat for marine and estuarine fishes. Much of this research is directed towards determining temporal and spatial distributions of fishes as well as the causes and consequences of habitat use in terms of age, growth, and mortality. His research is field-oriented and undergraduates spend considerable time collecting field data. These field experiences give his students "hands-on" experience collecting environmental data.
One current project examines nursery habitat for southern flounder and is funded by the NOAA Sea Grant Program. The decline of southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) populations in Texas may be attributed to overfishing and loss of nursery habitats. Little is known about their juvenile habitat requirements in the western Gulf of Mexico. The goal is to use field and laboratory experiments to determine why southern flounder select specific nursery habitat types (seagrass, marsh, sand, and oyster reef) in Aransas Bay, Texas. The other project, funded by the US EPA, examines the opening of Packery Channel, a closed natural tidal inlet located in Corpus Christi Bay. Although the channel historically allowed access to the Gulf of Mexico, it has been closed since the late 1930s. Plans are underway to dredge and reopen the channel creating a direct link for marine fishes and crustaceans spawned in the Gulf of Mexico to access nearby habitats; however, no baseline information on fisheries abundance or assessment of habitat value or impact of these sensitive estuarine habitat is available. The goal of this project is to characterize the impact of the Packery Channel opening on fishes and crustaceans using the Laguna Madre, an environmentally sensitive estuary.
Other projects in progress in Dr. Stunz's lab are: examining the effect on marine fauna of boat propeller scars in seagrass meadows; utilizing otolith microchemistry to identify estuaries of natal origin for red drum stocks; examining oyster reefs as a habitat for marine nekton; measuring reef fishes using a novel camera technique; modeling red drum populations; and assessing the catch and release mortality of spotted seatrout.