Home
Welcome to my homepage! I am currently working on my Ph.D. in Marine Geology at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. 
Research
My research focuses on the environmental and sedimentological controls over the growth and morphologies of the modern marine stromatolites fringing Highborne Cay in the Bahamas. I am a member of the biocomplexity study, Research Initiative on Bahamian Stromatolites, led by Dr. Pamela Reid. For the past three years I have spent almost half of each year on Highborne Cay conducting a high-resolution monitoring initiative on this unique seascape.
My Project:
The stromatolites at Highborne Cay are a mixed microbial community with both cyanobacteria and diatoms accreting new mat layers. The cyanobacterial mats are true prokaryotic mats similar to those found in the fossil record. These mats accrete a few centimeters of new mat a year under the optimal conditions. There are two seasonal variations in the diatom communities accreting new mat. In the summer and fall months, the diatom mats are dominated by stalked diatom species that can accrete a few centimeters of mat in a few months. In the winter and early spring, tube diatom species are the dominant mat accreters.
The cyanobacteria and diatoms constructing stromatolites biologically incorporate sand grains into the top surface of the mats by actively trapping and binding the grains. This trapping and binding results in the accretion of new sediment layers as the microbial community migrates to the surface of the mat. Most microbial communities are capable of trapping and binding a range of grain sizes. However, the microbial communities are not continuously accreting new grain layers. The mats undergo periods of extended burial when sand waves migrated across the reef leaving the stromatolites buried for days to months. This exposure and burial process is a dominant control on the stromatolite growth morphology and on the microbial community accreting new mat.
My research focuses on how changes in the environmental and sedimentoligical controls affect the microbial communities and the accretion of new mat. Specifically, I am interested in how different grain sizes and shapes are incorporated into the mats depending on the accreting microbial community. In conjuction, I am testing how perturbations on the grain size availability and interactions affect the mat communities. I am also in the process of determining if past accreting microbial communities can be determined in the sub-layers of the stromatolite. The culmination of this project is to apply the knowledge gained from the modern marine stromatolites to ancient stromatolite assembles similar in location and morphology.
Publications and Presentations
Bowlin, E., Reid, R.P., Gaspar, A.P. 2008. Sediment interactions controlling growth of modern marine stromatolites: Highborne Cay, Bahamas. American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Orlando, March 2008.
Bowlin, E., Reid, R.R., Gaspar, A.P. 2007. Microbe-sediment interactions controlling growth of modern marine stromatolites: Highborne Cay, Bahamas. American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, Dec. 2007.
Bowlin, E., Reid.R.P., Gaspar, A.P., Macintyre, I., and Cusals, L.Environmental Controls of Stromatolite Accretion, Highborne Cay, Bahamas. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting, San Francisco, December 2008.
Eckman J.E., Andres, M.S., Marinelli, R.L., Bowlin, E., Reid, R.P. Aspden, R.J. and Paterson, D.M. Wave and sediment dynanmics along a shallow sub-tidal sandy beach inhabited by modern marine stromatolites. Geobiology. v. 6., p. 21-32.
Littler, D.S., Littler, M.M., Macintyre, I.G., Bowlin, E., Andres, M.S. and Reid, R.P. 2005. Guide to the dominant macroalgae of the stromatolite fringing reef complex, Highborne Cay, Bahamas. Atoll Research Bulletin, nos. 532, November 2005, p 67-91.
Reid, R.P., Bowlin, E., Gaspar, A.P., Andres, M.S., Macintryre, I.G., Stolz, J.F. 2008. Two years in the life of a stromaotolite, Highborne Cay, Bahamas: Assessing the Role of Algal Eukaryotes in Stromatolite Formation. Kalkowsky Symposium 2008, Gottingen, Germany, Oct. 2008.