Carolyn Ewers-Lewis

Research Themes:
I am a coastal marine ecologist. I study vegetated coastal marine ecosystems - seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and mangrove forests - to improve our understanding of their role in global carbon cycling ('blue carbon') and resilience to environmental change.

My research combines ecosystems ecology with biogeochemistry to answer fundamental and applied questions surrounding coastal marine ecosystem functioning and services, from molecular to landscape-scale processes. My science is first and foremost question driven, meaning I use innovative approaches and leverage new technologies and methodologies to understand natural phenomena. I utilize both field and laboratory experiments, in situ observational studies, long-term datasets, geospatial modeling, statistical modeling, and a suite of laboratory techniques to accomplish this.

I am passionate about finding solutions to environmental problems that benefit both people and nature, and believe interdisciplinary collaborations are the best means to this end. I value teaching and mentoring, communicating science through outreach, and increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in STEM for all people.  

Selected Scientific Publications:
Ewers Lewis, C.J., McGlathery, K., Tassone, S., Pace, M., and Wiberg, P. 2026. Disturbance and recovery of seagrass blue carbon: a large-scale in situ experiment. Science of the Total Environment, 1013(0048-969): 181279.

Tassone, S.J., Ewers Lewis, C.J., McGlathery, K.J., and Pace, M.L. 2024. Seagrass ecosystem recovery: experimental removal and synthesis of disturbance studies. Limnology & Oceanography, 9999, 1-13.

Friess, D. A., Shribman, Z. I., Stankovic, M., Iram, N., Baustian, M. M., & Ewers Lewis, C. J. 2024. Restoring blue carbon ecosystems. Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures, 2.

Ewers Lewis, C.J., and McGlathery, K. 2023. A novel subsurface sediment plate method for quantifying sediment accumulation and erosion in seagrass meadows. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10:1232619.

Ewers Lewis, C.J., Young, M.A., Ierodiaconou, D., Baldock, J.A., Hawke, B., Sanderman, J., Carnell, P.E., and Macreadie, P. I. 2020. Drivers and modelling of blue carbon stock variability in sediments of southeastern Australia. Biogeosciences, 17: 2041-2059.

Ewers Lewis, C.J., Baldock, J.A., Hawke, B., Gadd, P., Zawadzki, A., Heijnis, H., Jacobsen, G.E., Rogers, K., and Macreadie, P.I. 2019. Impacts of land reclamation on tidal marsh ‘blue carbon’ stocks. Science of the Total Environment, 672: 427-437.

Ewers Lewis, C.J., Carnell, P.E., Sanderman, J., Baldock, J.A., and Macreadie, P.I. 2018. Variability and
vulnerability of coastal ‘blue carbon’ stocks: A case study from southeast Australia. Ecosystems, 21: 263-279.

Atwood, T.B., Connolly, R.M., Almahasheer, H., Carnell, P.E., Duarte, C.M., Ewers Lewis, C.J., Irigoien, X., Kelleway, J., Lavery, P.S., Macreadie, P.I., Serrano, O., Sanders, C., Santos, I., Steven, A., and Lovelock,C.E. 2017. Global patterns in mangrove soil carbon stocks and losses. Nature Climate Change, 7: 523-528.
 

Macreadie, P.I., Ollivier, Q, Kelleway, J.J., Serrano, O., Carnell, P., Ewers Lewis, C.J., Atwood, T., Sanderman, J., Baldock, J., Connolly, R., Duarte, C.M., Steven, A., and Lovelock, C.E. 2017. Carbon sequestration by Australian tidal marshes. Scientific Reports, 7: 44071.

For a complete list of my publications, please see my Google Scholar profile here.