Sarah Tucker has been selected to join the inaugural cohort of NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management Margaret A. Davidson Fellows. In collaboration with the Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve and Paepae o Heʻeia, Sarah will be characterizing natural and human-derived dynamics of phytoplankton communities and water quality throughout the Heʻeia watershed and adjacent open ocean over a four-year time series. This research will allow for an examination of how phytoplankton communities and water quality are influenced by processes both on land and at sea, as well as human-derived processes such as restoration efforts to remove invasive mangroves. The project will specifically address management needs through an increased understanding of the phytoplankton assemblages seeding the Heʻeia fishpond and forming the base of the aquatic functional food web, and the biogeochemical conditions controlling phytoplankton productivity within the Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve.