Rick Bartleson, Ph.D.

After receiving a B.A. in Biology from the University of South Florida, Richard worked as a lab and field technician at Mote Marine Lab, the Rookery Bay Marine Lab, and Florida DER mainly doing water quality sampling and analyses. He received his M.S. from the Ecosystems Ecology division of the Environmental Engineering Sciences program at the University of Florida. For his master’s thesis, he studied the effects of seagrass on sedimentation and constructed a simulation model of seagrass growth and its effect on currents and sedimentation. While at UF, Richard researched ecosystem effects of increased fresh water flow in Florida Bay. After graduating, he worked on a project showing effects of diverting fresh water flow on the Savanna River ecosystems. He then worked on a simulation model of the Chesapeake Bay as a Senior Faculty Research Assistant at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Environmental Lab. He received his Ph.D. from the Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Studies program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where his research was designed to increase the understanding of how water column nutrients affect seagrass health. After finishing his field and lab research, he started a postdoc with the Lake Okeechobee Research unit at the South Florida Water Management District, conducting microcosm research on the effects of submersed plants on nutrients and constructing a simulation model of submersed plant growth.

Research interests: Ecosystem role of seagrass beds, seagrass effects on water quality, sedimentation and nutrient cycling, sediment and water column effects on seagrass growth, correlation of seagrass bed size with ecosystem effects, effects of seagrass beds on water flow, enhancing nutrient removal ability of submersed plant beds.