About

F. Joel Fodrie is a professor and the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on the population dynamics of fishes and shellfishes, as well as the community ecology of estuarine systems such as seagrass meadows and oyster reefs. He holds a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, obtained in 2006, and a B.A. in Biology and History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earned in 1999. Fodrie's work is dedicated to understanding the ecological processes within estuarine environments, contributing to the fields of marine and environmental sciences through his research on estuarine ecology.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Ecology
• Biology
• Oceanography
• Geology
• Fishery
• Geography

Selected publications

• Soundscapes of natural and artificial temperate reefs: similar temporal patterns but distinct spectral content

  UNC Libraries · 2025-09-11

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Marine soundscapes often differ among habitats; however, relatively little is known about whether soundscapes on naturally occurring habitats differ from soundscapes on human-made structures. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated whether temporal and spectral characteristics of biological sound production differ between natural and artificial offshore reefs. Specifically, we analyzed recordings from 5 week-long hydrophone deployments on 2 natural rocky reefs and 2 artificial reefs on the North Carolina, USA, continental shelf. Analysis of sound pressure levels (SPLs) on hourly and seasonal scales revealed similar temporal patterns between the reef types. These patterns were largely driven by 4 dominant fish vocalizers with seasonal chorusing patterns, including a toadfish Opsanus sp. Despite similar temporal patterns within reef types, soundscape spectral content was more similar within than between reef types, especially during the April deployment, which had the most acoustic activity. Our findings suggest that the soundscapes of shipwreck artificial reefs may differ from the soundscapes of natural rocky reefs, possibly due to differing community composition. As sound plays an important role in the navigation and settlement of many marine species, soundscape differences between natural and artificial habitats could affect ecosystem function through species behavior and interactions.

  PublisherDOI

• Contaminants disrupt aquatic food webs via decreased consumer efficiency

  UNC Libraries · 2025-02-02

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Host traits and temperature predict biogeographical variation in seagrass disease prevalence

  Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2025-02-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Diseases are ubiquitous in natural systems, with broad effects across populations, communities and ecosystems. However, the drivers of many diseases remain poorly understood, particularly in marine environments, inhibiting effective conservation and management measures. We examined biogeographical patterns of infection in the foundational seagrass Zostera marina by the parasitic protist Labyrinthula zosterae , the causative agent of seagrass wasting disease, across >20° of latitude in two ocean basins. We then identified and characterized relationships among wasting disease prevalence and a suite of host traits and environmental variables. Host characteristics and transmission dynamics explained most of the variance in prevalence across our survey, yet the particular host traits underlying these relationships varied between oceans, with host size and nitrogen content important in the Pacific and host size and density most important in the Atlantic. Temperature was also a key predictor of prevalence, particularly in the Pacific Ocean. The strength and shape of the relationships between prevalence and some predictors differed in our large-scale survey versus previous experimental and site-specific work. These results show that both host characteristics and environment influence host–parasite interactions, and that some such effects scale up predictably, whereas others appear to depend on regional or local context.

  PublisherDOI

• Seasonal asynchrony and harvest diversification contribute to demersal finfish fisheries stability in Chesapeake Bay

  Ecological Applications · 2025-09-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Biodiversity can confer temporal stability to ecosystem processes through asynchrony in species' abundances and may promote asynchrony and stability of commercial fishing harvests derived from exploited species. However, the linkages between asynchrony in the population dynamics of commercially harvested species and asynchrony of associated harvests have been difficult to resolve due to ecological, social, and economic dynamics that mediate resource extraction. Here, we explored coupled human-ecological relationships and emergent asynchrony using commercial fishing harvest data and fisheries-independent trawl surveys in two regions (Maryland and Virginia) of Chesapeake Bay, USA, from 2002 to 2018. For each region, we sought to identify how seasonal (within-year) asynchrony among harvested fish species contributed to (1) seasonal asynchrony in the harvests of these species and (2) within-year stability and economic value of harvests. We found that, in Maryland, seasonal closure of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) fishing resulted in asynchrony by forcing switching to alternative stocks. In Virginia, seasonal migration of harvested species to and from the Chesapeake Bay promoted harvest compensation and therefore harvest asynchrony. However, this effect was negated by the concurrent effects of an increase in the evenness of species dynamics on harvest compensation, reflecting changes in fishing patterns, primarily following declines in the biomass of Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus). Our findings show that both social (direct management actions and behavioral responses) and emergent properties of ecological systems can influence asynchrony in dynamics of exploited populations and commercial harvests, with implications for their continued management and sustainability.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Latitudinal Cline in the Taxonomic Structure of Eelgrass Epifaunal Communities is Associated With Plant Genetic Diversity

  Global Ecology and Biogeography · 2024-09-30 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Aim Biogenic structural complexity increases mobile animal richness and abundance at local, regional and global scales, yet animal taxa vary in their response to complexity. When these taxa also vary functionally, habitat structures favouring certain taxa may have consequences for ecosystem function. We characterised global patterns of epifaunal invertebrates in eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) beds that varied in structural and genetic composition. Location North America, Europe and Asia. Time Period 2014. Major Taxa Studied Peracarid crustaceans and gastropod molluscs. Methods We sampled epifaunal invertebrate communities in 49 eelgrass beds across 37° latitude in two ocean basins concurrently with measurements of eelgrass genetic diversity, structural complexity and other abiotic and biotic environmental variables. We examined how species richness, abundance and community composition varied with latitude and environmental predictors using a random forest approach. We also examined how functional trait composition varied along with community structure. Results Total species richness decreased with latitude, but this was accompanied by a taxonomic shift in dominance from peracarid crustaceans to gastropods, which exhibited different sets of functional traits. Greater eelgrass genetic diversity was strongly correlated with both richness and abundance of peracarids, but less so for gastropods. Main Conclusions Our results add to a growing body of literature that suggests genetic variation in plant traits influences their associated faunal assemblages via habitat structure. Because peracarids and gastropods exhibited distinct functional traits, our results suggest a tentative indirect link between broad‐scale variation in plant genetic diversity and ecosystem function.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Distribution and relative predation risk of nekton reveal complex edge effects within temperate seagrass habitat

  UNC Libraries · 2024-07-27

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Habitat area more consistently affects seagrass faunal communities than fragmentation per se

  Ecological Monographs · 2024-10-09 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Seminal ecological theories, island biogeography and the single large or several small (SLOSS) reserve debate, examine whether large contiguous habitats conserve biodiversity better than multiple smaller patches. Today, delineating the ecological effects of habitat area versus configuration in a fragmentation context remains difficult, and often confounds efforts to understand proximate and ultimate drivers of community change in response to habitat alteration. We examined how the major components of fragmentation, habitat division versus area loss, independently influence faunal communities using landscapes constructed from artificial seagrass at scales relevant for juvenile estuarine nekton. We deployed 25 unique, 234‐m 2 landscapes designed along orthogonal axes: habitat percent cover (i.e., area) and fragmentation per se (i.e., patchiness) to examine their effects on faunal density, community composition, and probability of bait‐assay consumption. Faunal sampling occurred in both artificial seagrass and interspaced sandflat matrix. We also examined whether larval‐settler density drove faunal density patterns across landscapes. Further, we assessed the relative importance of landscape‐scale parameters versus fine‐scale complexity–canopy height and epiphyte biomass–in determining faunal densities. We most consistently observed increasing epibenthic fish and macroinvertebrate density with increasing seagrass percent cover. Fragmentation per se only negatively affected epibenthic faunal density within the matrix at low seagrass coverage. Bait consumption increased with seagrass cover, suggesting larger habitats are relative foraging hotspots. Alternatively, benthopelagic fish density was unaffected by habitat parameters, reflecting lower seagrass reliance, or increased matrix tolerance. Community compositions did not vary across landscapes, suggesting that abundant species used landscapes indiscriminately. Finally, the relative importance of habitat parameters shifted across faunal guilds and life stages. Landscape percent cover most affected epibenthic faunal density, but not benthopelagic fish density, and neither pattern was related to settler density. Further, only fine‐scale complexity influenced settler densities. Collectively, our results indicate habitat area is a primary, positive driver of faunal densities and generalist consumption, and therefore should be prioritized in seagrass conservation. However, sampling across spatial scales and habitat types revealed nuances in habitat use patterns among faunal guilds and life stages that were not solely area‐dependent, illustrating that a variety of landscape configurations support essential nursery functions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Climate drives the geography of marine consumption by changing predator communities

  UNC Libraries · 2024-07-27

  articleOpen access

  The global distribution of primary production and consumption by humans (fisheries) is well-documented, but we have no map linking the central ecological process of consumption within food webs to temperature and other ecological drivers. Using standardized assays that span 105° of latitude on four continents, we show that rates of bait consumption by generalist predators in shallow marine ecosystems are tightly linked to both temperature and the composition of consumer assemblages. Unexpectedly, rates of consumption peaked at midlatitudes (25 to 35°) in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres across both seagrass and unvegetated sediment habitats. This pattern contrasts with terrestrial systems, where biotic interactions reportedly weaken away from the equator, but it parallels an emerging pattern of a subtropical peak in marine biodiversity. The higher consumption at midlatitudes was closely related to the type of consumers present, which explained rates of consumption better than consumer density, biomass, species diversity, or habitat. Indeed, the apparent effect of temperature on consumption was mostly driven by temperature-associated turnover in consumer community composition. Our findings reinforce the key influence of climate warming on altered species composition and highlight its implications for the functioning of Earth's ecosystems.

  PublisherDOI

• Ocean current patterns drive the worldwide colonization of eelgrass (Zostera marina)

  Nature Plants · 2023-07-20 · 39 citations

  articleOpen access

  Currents are unique drivers of oceanic phylogeography and thus determine the distribution of marine coastal species, along with past glaciations and sea-level changes. Here we reconstruct the worldwide colonization history of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.), the most widely distributed marine flowering plant or seagrass from its origin in the Northwest Pacific, based on nuclear and chloroplast genomes. We identified two divergent Pacific clades with evidence for admixture along the East Pacific coast. Two west-to-east (trans-Pacific) colonization events support the key role of the North Pacific Current. Time-calibrated nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies yielded concordant estimates of the arrival of Z. marina in the Atlantic through the Canadian Arctic, suggesting that eelgrass-based ecosystems, hotspots of biodiversity and carbon sequestration, have only been present there for ~243 ky (thousand years). Mediterranean populations were founded ~44 kya, while extant distributions along western and eastern Atlantic shores were founded at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (~19 kya), with at least one major refuge being the North Carolina region. The recent colonization and five- to sevenfold lower genomic diversity of the Atlantic compared to the Pacific populations raises concern and opportunity about how Atlantic eelgrass might respond to rapidly warming coastal oceans.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Data for Trophic Partitioning of Seasonally Resident Predators in a Temperate Estuary

  Figshare · 2023-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Bulk stable isotope values δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, and δ³⁴S for Atlantic sharpnose (<em>Rhizoprionodon terraenovae</em>), bonnethead (<em>Sphyrna tiburo</em>), blacktip (<em>Carcharhinus limbatus</em>), and blacknose (<em>Carcharhinus acronotus</em>) sharks from red blood cells and blood plasma. <br> Bulk stable isotope values δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, and δ³⁴S for microphytobenthos, detritus, seagrass epiphytes, phytoplankton, saltmarsh and seagrass vegitation.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Interacting Effects of Local Demography and Larval Connectivity on Estuarine Metapopulation Dynamics

  NSF · $510k · 2012–2017

• Collaborative Proposal: MSA: Environmental and anthropogenic drivers of decadal-scale changes in estuarine fish alpha and beta diversity from local to biogeographic scales

  NSF · $98k · 2019–2023

• Collaborative Research: Habitat fragmentation effects on fish diversity at landscape scales: experimental tests of multiple mechanisms

  NSF · $451k · 2016–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Paola C. López‐Duarte

  Portland State University

  102 shared

• Lisa A. Levin

  University of California, San Diego

  94 shared

• Bonnie J. Becker

  University of Washington Tacoma

  91 shared

• Henry S. Carson

  Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

  81 shared

• Gerald S. Cook

  Scripps Institution of Oceanography

  81 shared

• Claudio DiBacco

  81 shared

• Kenneth L. Heck

  Dauphin Island Sea Lab

  25 shared

• Kenneth W. Able

  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

  22 shared