Background Information

David Shull received degrees in oceanography from the University of Washington (B.S.) and the University of Connecticut (M.S.), and a degree in environmental science from the University of Massachusetts Boston (Ph.D., 2000).  Afterward, he was a research associate at the University of Maine's Darling Marine Center and an assistant professor of biology at Gordon College before coming to Western in 2004.  Dr. Shull studies invertebrate communities in estuaries and continental shelf sediments.  He is particularly interested in the roles that benthic organisms play in the function of coastal ecosystems.  He has studied the effects of benthic organisms on the fate of contaminants in coastal waters, the role of deposit feeders in the initiation of harmful algal blooms (red tide), and the effects of tube-building organisms on concentrations of methyl mercury in sediments.  Currently he is studying how benthic organisms affect the fate of methyl mercury in coastal ecosystems, the effects of low concentrations of dissolved oxygen on benthic communities in Hood Canal, Washington, and nutrient cycling in the shelf sediments of the Bering Sea.

(core of Boston Harbor Sediment)