Rate My Professor Amy Siuda

Amy Siuda is a Professor of Marine Science at Eckerd College, recognized as a marine ecologist and biological oceanographer. Her research interests span marine plankton ecology from organismal to population and community levels, where plankton form the foundations of marine food webs. She investigates complex interactions among plankton as well as between plankton and the physical/chemical environment. To study these patterns and processes, her research team employs experimental approaches such as controlled bottle experiments, observational methods like net tow sampling, and molecular techniques for data collection. Current projects include the distribution and diversity of Sargassum and its associated community, and plankton-microplastic interactions. Additionally, she is passionate about decreasing the accumulation of plastic marine debris. Through the Reduce Single-Use Project, she raises awareness of the plastic marine debris problem and encourages reduction of single-use plastic consumption on campus, in St. Petersburg, and across Florida. Siuda earned her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Connecticut in 2007 and her B.A. from Middlebury College in 1997.

At Eckerd College, she teaches courses such as MS 102 – Biological Oceanography, MS 310 – Marine Conservation Ecology, MS342 – Chemical and Physical Oceanography, and MS 410 – Marine Science Seminar – Plankton Ecology. Her key publications include Govindarajan et al., 'The distribution and mitochondrial genotype of the hydroid Aglaophenia latecarinata is correlated with its Sargassum substrate type in the Sargasso Sea' (PeerJ, 2019); Martin et al., 'Probopyrinella latreuticola parasite infestation frequencies in pelagic Sargassum-associated shrimp, Latreutes fucorum' (Journal of Plankton Research, 2019); Sorace et al., 'Technical Memorandum: Methods for the collection and quantification of microplastics in Tampa Bay' (Tampa Bay Estuary Program Technical Report #08-18, 2018); Schell et al., 'Recent Sargassum inundation events in the Caribbean – shipboard observations establish baseline and reveal dominance of a previously rare form' (Oceanography, 2015); Sehein et al., 'Connectivity in the slender Sargassum shrimp (Latreutes fucorum): implications for a Sargasso Sea protected area' (Journal of Plankton Research, 2014); Peters and Siuda, 'A review of observations of floating tar in the Sargasso Sea' (Oceanography, 2014); and the multi-author 'The protection and management of the Sargasso Sea: The golden floating rainforest of the Atlantic Ocean' (Sargasso Sea Alliance, 2011).