Laura Dissly

Master’s student at Northeastern in the 3 Seas Program

[Laura Dissly @LDissly]

Algae can sometimes smother corals, but it also plays an important role on reefs that are healthy! It’s key for fixing carbon, acts as a primary producer, and is an important food source for herbivores.

[Laura Dissly @LDissly]

Diving in #Bocas has been amazing, but it’s so disheartening to see plastic on every beach, even the most remote ones as well as in underwater ecosystems like this sea grass bed. Properly disposing of your trash is so important!

[Laura Dissly @LDissly]

Today in Ocean and Coastal Processes we learned about #turbulence by filming dye diffusion rates and comparing results from different depths (the dye is environmentally safe don’t worry!)

[Laura Dissly @LDissly]

Although this reef is beautiful and seems healthy, there were very few fish present on it. Overfishing of both large predators and herbivorous fish poses as a large threat to reefs here in Bocas and worldwide.

[Laura Dissly @LDissly]

Collecting data by conducting surveys on local reefs on benthic coverage to look at temporal variation in reef composition for #CoralReefEcology lab is a pretty good way to spend mornings! #3Cs37 @MaggieDJohnson @NU_ThreeSeas

[Laura Dissly @LDissly]

Check out all this biodiversity found on mangrove roots in Bocas del Toro! Juvenile fish use mangroves as nursery habitat before migrating out to coral reefs @NU_ThreeSeas #3Cs37 @MaggieDJohnson