HRI: Dr. Paul Montagna

ABOUT US - PERSONNEL - ENDOWED FACULTY - MONTAGNA

DR. PAUL MONTAGNA
HRI ENDOWED CHAIR FOR ECOSYSTEM STUDIES & MODELING

HRI ENDOWED FACULTY
DR. RICHARD MCLAUGHLIN
DR. PAUL MONTAGNA

TAMUCC BIO

GULF BASE BIO

CURRICULUM VITAE pdf

PUBLICATIONS
DR. THOMAS SHIRLEY
DR. GREG STUNZ

Paul Montagna: HRI's newest endowed chair
Source: HRI News Spring 2007

Dr. Paul Montagna became the HRI's third endowed chair when he came onboard in 2006 to head up the ecosystem studies and modeling program. Before joining the HRI staff, he worked with the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.

The HRI's other two endowed chairs are Dr. Tom Shirley, whose specialty is biodiversity, and Dr. Richard McLaughlin, whose specialty is marine policy and law.

Montagna and his staff are studying how organisms control and regulate marine ecosystems and coastal environments. Much of their research information is used to help guide resource management decisions.

Their day-to-day work includes collecting data on bottom-living organisms and on water quality. Using this data, they study the effects of freshwater inflow, water quality and contaminants.

Rick Kalke, is Montagna's field coordinator and lab manager. In early March, he and two HRI researchers were in the field getting benthic macro-fauna samples to study the environmental effects of the newly built Packery Channel. Packery is one of six areas they are studying in the Texas Coastal Bend area.

Dr. Paul Montagna - photo by Carrie Robertson
Dr. Paul Montagna in his HRI office
Carrie Robertson photo - download hi-rez (390KB)

Contact Information:
Harte Research Institute
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5869
Corpus Christi , Texas 78412-5869
Telephone: (361) 825-2040
Fax: (361) 825-2049
E-mail: paul.montagna@tamucc.edu

Paul Montagna was named HRI's Endowed Chair for Ecosystem Studies and Modeling in September 2006. He has worked in the western Gulf of Mexico since 1986 and published widely on ecosystems, benthos, environmental flows, and ectoxicology. New research has been initiated on valuing nature, ecoinformatics, and cyberinfrastructure.

Area of Expertise/Interest:
Marine ecology

Research Projects:

Long-Term Response of Benthic Organisms to Freshwater Inflow in Texas Coastal Bend Estuaries, 2006-2008. Benthic samples and hydrographic characteristics are monitored quarterly in four bay systems. Sediment characteristics are collected annually. These data are used in models to predict response of benthic organisms (polychaetes, mollusks, and crustaceans) to quantity of freshwater inflow needed to maintain bay productivity and health.
Rincon Bayou Diversion Project, Biological Monitoring, 2006-2008. Benthic samples are collected monthly to determine the effects of restored inflow in Nueces Delta, and to help provide information on operating the public water system.
Effect of Climatic Variability on Freshwater Inflow, Benthic Communities, and Secondary Production in Texas Lagoonal Estuaries, 2006-2009. The objective is to complete development of an ecological model to calculate system wide productivity for two trophic groups of benthic organisms in response to climatic differences and freshwater inflow variability.
McMurdo Station (Antarctica) Long Term Monitoring, 2006-2008. The objective of this project is to determine the human footprint in McMurdo Sound using benthic indicators.
Oyster Reef Restoration in Copano Bay, Texas, 2007-2009. The objectives are to focus on designing and describing a sampling schemes to collect biological and ecological data on oyster reefs in Copano Bay to plan and determine success of restoration efforts.
Colorado River Flow Relationship to Bay Health: Benthic Indicators, 2006-2007. Using a model to estimate how benthic conditions in Matagorda Bay might change under different salinity conditions should the LCRA-SAWS project move forward.
An Environmental Information System for Hypoxia in Corpus Christi Bay: A WATERS Network Test Bed., 2006-2008 A prototype Environmental Information System (EIS) that couples sensor measurements with end-to-end cyberinfrastructure is being created to demonstrate how observatory data can be used to improve understanding of hypoxia. This interdisciplinary project will demonstrating the effectiveness of the EIS for supporting adaptive hypoxia sampling and collaborative research using the CyberCollaboratory.
Effects of climate and land use/ land cover change on the link between uplands and coastal estuaries, 2007-2010. This is the estuary component of a large interdisciplinary project. The goal is to model changes in estuarine productivity using historical data and data modeled by the other project components on freshwater and nutrient inflow, salinity and temperature dynamics, and local climate projections.

Education:

Ph.D., University of South Carolina (1983)
M.S., Northeastern University (1976)
B.S., State University of New York at Stony Brook (1971)

Postdoctoral Associates:

Dr. Jennifer Beseres, Benthic Ecology
Dr. Jorge Brenner, Ecological Economics
Dr. Hae-Cheol Kim, Ecological Modeling

Research Associates:

Rick Kalke, M.S.
Larry Hyde, M.S.
Terry Palmer, M.S.
April Gossmann, B.S.
Carrol Simanek

Students:

Erin Hill, Ph.D. student
Kevin Nelson, Ph.D. student

Courses:

Experimental Design, CMSS 6323 (Fall 2007)
Syllabus (MS Word doc)

Honors/Awards/Service:

Chairman’s Award, for extended commitment and extraordinary effectiveness in preserving our rich coastal heritage. Coastal Bend Bays Foundation Conservation & Environmental Stewardship Award (2006)
Member, Science Advisory Committee, Environmental Flows Advisory Committee (Governor Perry Executive Order RP-50), Texas Water Development Board (2006)
Member, Board of Directors, Estuarine Research Federation (2005-2007)
President, Gulf Estuarine Research Society (2005-2007)
Senior Guest Scientist Award, French NATO Program (1993)

Selected Publications:

Russell, M.J. and P.A. Montagna. 2007. Spatial and temporal variability and drivers of net ecosystem metabolism in Western Gulf of Mexico Estuaries. Estuaries and Coasts 30: 137-153.
Baguley J.G., P.A. Montagna, L.J. Hyde, R.D. Kalke, G.T. Rowe. 2006. Metazoan meiofauna abundance in relation to environmental variables in the northern Gulf of Mexico deep sea.. Deep-Sea Research I 53:1344-1362.
Tenore, K.R., R.N. Zajac, J. Terwin, F. Andrade, J. Blanton, W. Boynton, D. Carey, R. Diaz, A.F. Holland, E. Lopez-Jamar, P. Montagna, F. Nichols, R. Rosenberg, H. Queiroga, M. Sprung, R.B. Whitlatch. 2006. Characterizing the role benthos plays in large coastal seas and estuaries: A modular approach. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 330: 392-402.
Tenore, K.R., R.N. Zajac, J. Terwin, F. Andrade, J. Blanton, W. Boynton, D. Carey, R. Diaz, A.F. Holland, E. Lopez-Jamar, P. Montagna, F. Nichols, R. Rosenberg, H. Queiroga, M. Sprung, R.B. Whitlatch. 2006. Characterizing the role benthos plays in large coastal seas and estuaries: A modular approach. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 330: 392-402.
Applebaum, S., P.A. Montagna, and C. Ritter. 2005. Status and trends of dissolved oxygen in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, U.S.A. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 107: 297-311.