Meredith LaLumia, a marine science major in the Gupta College of Science at Coastal Carolina University, won the Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation award at the 2022 Southeastern Estuarine Research Society (SEERS) annual meeting, held in Jekyll Island, Ga., March 24-26. The title of her presentation was “Territoriality of the Atlantic Ghost Crab, Ocypode quadrata, Based on Anthropogenic Impact of Private and Public Beaches.”

LaLumia is a junior Honors student from Moorestown, N.J. She has been working on this project with her research advisor, Eric Rosch, Ph.D., a senior lecturer in the Department of Marine Science, since the beginning of her freshman year at CCU. Her research showed how impacts relating to coastal development can alter the behavior of important beach organisms, but also that these impacts must be assessed in conjunction with environmental factors. Her results have implications for the health and sustainability of beach habitats.

SEERS is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to the informal exchange of interdisciplinary information related to estuarine and coastal habitats of the southeastern United States, primarily in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.