Oyewole is conducting a study that is partly funded by a grant from The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island<\/a> into how offshore wind farm structures are impacting the growth and habitats of Jonah crabs.<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cEcologically, Jonah crabs also play an important role in the marine food web,\u201d said Oyewole, who is from Il\u00e9-If\u1eb9\u0300, Nigeria, a town in the southwestern part of the country. \u201cThey are both predators and prey, helping to maintain balance within benthic ecosystems. Because they are closely connected to seafloor habitats, they can help us understand how offshore wind farm structures may influence local biodiversity, habitat use, and the productivity of fisheries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When turbine foundations are installed on the seafloor, their hard surfaces become desirable habitats for marine organisms to attach, grow, and live, just as they do on natural rock or reefs. As algae, barnacles, mussels, and other small marine life, settle on these structures, these smaller organisms attract larger species such as crabs and fish that come to feed, hide, or seek shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe turbines can create a kind of \u2018mini ecosystem.\u2019 They provide food and habitat, which can draw marine life into the area and potentially change how species use the surrounding environment,\u201d said Oyewole. \u201cThe question is whether they are increasing the overall amount of marine life in the ocean by creating new production or simply concentrating animals that were already living in the surrounding areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The data Oyewole collects and analyzes will benefit the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation<\/a>, a nonprofit organization founded by local commercial fishermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the last year, Oyewole has conducted field work twice a month, long before sunrise. Boarding lobster vessels at Point Judith, Rhode Island, he has accompanied fishermen as they haul ventless traps from 10 stations near the Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the most important things I have learned from commercial fishermen is that the end product of research is just as important as the research process itself,\u201d said Oyewole. \u201cResearch should not only answer scientific questions, but it should also be useful to the people and communities most affected by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oyewole\u2019s conversations with the fishermen have helped inform his research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis project has been shaped by listening to their experiences, concerns, and needs. Their knowledge of the water, species behavior, and changing fishing patterns provides insight that scientific sampling alone can\u2019t capture,\u201d he said. \u201cEven as data collection continues, their support remains a critical part of the work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than completing his fieldwork first and starting lab work later, Oyewole\u2019s project is designed to accomplish both phases concurrently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile we are collecting samples, we will begin processing them in the lab for tissue-specific stable isotope analysis,\u201d said Oyewole. \u201cField sampling, lab analysis, and data interpretation will build on each other over time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the guidance of Associate Professor Kelton McMahon<\/a>, Oyewole performs tissue-specific stable isotope analysis on the crabs in the Ocean Ecogeochemistry Laboratory<\/a> on URI\u2019s Narragansett Bay Campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe isotope analysis helps us understand where these crabs have been living and feeding at different times of their lives,\u201d said Oyewole. \u201cDifferent parts of the ocean can leave slightly different chemical \u2018signatures\u2019 in an animal\u2019s tissues, almost like a natural geographic fingerprint. This will enable us to trace whether the crabs are living and feeding around the wind farm long enough to benefit from the habitat or whether they are simply moving in temporarily from surrounding areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n McMahon has been impressed with Oyewole dedication and research prowess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEmmanuel is intellectually independent, technically skilled, and deeply committed to producing science that informs real conservation and management decisions by fisheries,\u201d said McMahon. \u201cHis work addresses a timely question about offshore wind development and marine resource dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having grown up in a region where fisheries are both economically important and environmentally vulnerable, Oyewole saw firsthand the challenges communities face in balancing resource use with long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy research at URI has shaped my desire to develop practical, science-based management strategies that protect aquatic resources while also supporting local livelihoods,\u201d said Oyewole. \u201cMy goal is to build a career at the intersection of marine ecosystem science and the sustainability of fisheries, with a particular focus on African waters, especially in my home country of Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" URI graduate student, Emmanuel Oyewole, studies how wind farm structures affect Jonah crabs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":191755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2510,79,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blue-economy-videos","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192727,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192726\/revisions\/192727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2026\/05\/LabWork4-814x1024.jpeg\")