Meet Ella Armbruster, 2025 Florida Sea Grant Neighborhood Engaged Intern – Cyber Tech

“Once I was youthful, I keep in mind paddling and swimming out on Jupiter Seashore, when hastily I’d really feel the bizarre, slimy stuff on the bottom. It turned out to be seagrass.”

Ella Armbruster grew up close to the Indian River Lagoon. As soon as uneasy across the ribbon-like plant, she is now on a mission to guard the grass-like aquatic plant. 

Ella, a College of Florida pupil learning environmental science and zoology, is the 2025 Florida Sea Grant Neighborhood Engaged Intern. In her position, she can be supporting the Eyes on Seagrass program within the Indian River Lagoon area. Her work will embody conducting seagrass surveys, creating academic assets, and serving to interact neighborhood science volunteers.

Eyes on Seagrass is a participatory science program that empowers volunteers to watch and report on seagrass well being. It started in Charlotte Harbor in 2019 and has since expanded statewide. The info collected helps scientists monitor adjustments in seagrass and make knowledgeable choices about administration and restoration efforts. Sea Grant brokers within the Indian River Lagoon area just lately launched this system domestically, and Ella will play a key position in partaking new volunteers and supporting this enlargement.

“I grew up subsequent to a drainage canal that emptied into the ocean, and I began studying how extra nitrogen and phosphorus from runoff could cause algal blooms and harm seagrass. That’s the reason I’m actually trying ahead to partaking the general public about seagrass well being of their neighborhood,” Ella says. “If I had been attempting to find out about an environmental concern in my very own yard, a science diploma shouldn’t be required for the reply. That’s why speaking science in plain language issues a lot.”

Armbruster utilizing a quadrat to estimate seagrass protection. Picture by Ella Armbuster.

Ella sees herself as a curious learner, actively exploring a spread of educational pursuits and in search of out hands-on experiences. She’s taken pollinator and entomology programs and has a selected curiosity in honey bees. She’s additionally participated in reef surveys and different field-based science tasks which have deepened her understanding of environmental programs.

“I did numerous seaside and science camps rising up. I participated in a biology immersion program the place I studied mangrove survival after they had been buried by sand throughout Hurricane Irma. That have confirmed me what number of various kinds of scientists contribute to understanding advanced ecosystems. It actually opened my eyes to how interconnected science is,” Ella says.

Now primarily based on the Martin County UF/IFAS Extension Workplace, Ella has already had alternatives to work together with different useful resource professionals whose work connects to seagrass well being. This consists of Grasp Gardeners, who promote sustainable landscaping practices and options to fertilizing lawns, which might have a big effect on water high quality and the well being of close by seagrass meadows.

Later this summer time, she’s going to journey to Wilmington, North Carolina, for a four-day in-person discipline expertise with different Sea Grant Neighborhood Engaged Interns. The journey will embody visits to state environmental businesses, hands-on neighborhood fieldwork, and scientific displays. It’s designed to show interns to numerous profession pathways in freshwater, coastal, and marine useful resource administration throughout the southeastern U.S.

“I’m trying ahead to studying by fieldwork, making connections, and studying speak about science with others, together with family and friends, as I work out what path I would take after undergrad.”