About

Shirley Baker is a Professor in the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences at the University of Florida, affiliated with the Florida SeaGrant. Her research focuses on addressing knowledge gaps related to cultured clams and natural or restored oyster reefs within Florida’s coastal and estuarine ecosystems. She examines the effects of water quality on shellfish productivity, investigates the physiological mechanisms underlying these effects, and studies the ecosystem services provided by shellfish. Additionally, she develops models to predict the impacts of water quality parameters on shellfish productivity and ecosystem services. Her extension efforts aim to provide leadership and support to the shellfish industry, agriculture industry, and citizens of Florida in aquaculture and molluscan invasions. She collaborates with county and statewide faculty to identify emerging industry needs, conduct relevant research, and deliver sustainable solutions. Shirley Baker holds a PhD from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary (1994), an MS from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Oregon (1988), and a BS from Seattle Pacific University (1986).

Research topics

• Political Science
• Geography
• Environmental science
• Environmental resource management
• Biology
• Ecology
• Environmental planning
• Linguistics
• Psychology
• Public relations
• Engineering
• Fishery

Selected publications

• A Comparison Between the Northern Hard Clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) and Southern Hard Clam (Mercenaria campechiensis) for Restoration in Florida

  EDIS · 2026-04-20

  articleOpen access

  Hard clams provide many benefits to Florida’s coastal ecosystems beyond supporting the clam aquaculture industry. One of these benefits is improved water quality through filtration and nutrient cycling. However, both pollution and overharvesting have led to a decline in native clam populations for many areas, resulting in a growing interest among restoration practitioners to rebuild clam populations. There are two clam species native to Florida currently used in restoration: the northern hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, and the southern hard clam, Mercenaria campechiensis. This publication is intended for academics, restoration practitioners, and policy makers interested in shellfish restoration. The goal of this document is to describe the similarities and differences between these two species and to serve as a resource for selecting the best hard clam for a restoration project.

  PublisherDOI

• Climate Change Cyber Activism- Visual Communication Content Analysis of Youth Activist Greta Thunberg’s Instagram

  International Journal of Arts Humanities & Social Science · 2024-01-22 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  On August 14, 2019, Greta Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to attend the United Nations Climate Summit in New York City. The purpose of this study was to explore the messaging behind youth Cyber activist Greta Thunberg’s Instagram account during her journey. We used an arts based visual content analysis approach and the following research questions guided the study: a) How did Thunberg share her climate activist journey with her Instagram followers? and b) How did Thunberg’s Instagram followers respond to posts she made during her climate activist journey? We collected posts from August 14 to 28, 2021. Images, captions, and the first ten comments of the posts shared by Thunberg’s Instagram account were qualitatively coded. Themes that emerged from the arts-based visual and textual analysis included: 1) Thunberg shared her experience through journey storytelling and voiced ongoing activism and 2) Thunberg’s audience members’ top comments indicated a primarily negative response to her journey. We highlight themes from the posts and discuss implications for online cyber activists and communication professionals.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Unexpected stability in faunal population abundances following an estuary‐wide collapse of oysters

  Ecosphere · 2024-08-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Live oyster reefs are considered a critical recruitment habitat for estuarine faunal populations as localized in situ or mesocosm studies have demonstrated many faunal species prefer live oyster habitat. It has therefore been assumed that the loss of live oyster habitat would precipitate faunal population declines, but this has been largely untested at large (estuary) scales. Here, we assessed how estuary‐wide faunal populations were affected by a 95% loss of live oyster habitat following the 2012 oyster collapse of Apalachicola Bay, FL, which previously supported one of the largest oyster fisheries in the United States. We standardized long‐term fisheries‐independent monitoring seine and trawl data to create relative indices of resident, associated, and transient faunal species' overall abundance and recruit abundance (restrictive to sizes between 15% and 35% of ). We expected that both relative abundance indices would decrease following the oyster collapse, particularly among species that reside on or recruit to oyster reefs. However, analyses via a series of one‐sided Bayesian t tests did not indicate that faunal recruitment or overall abundance significantly declined in 2012 post‐collapse. As the response of the faunal population could be lagged relative to the 2012 collapse, we also conducted change point analyses to search for lagged declines. Of the 24 relative abundance time series, only two had significant change points post‐collapse, and only black sea bass overall relative abundance declined with an associated change point at the end of the time series. The surprising paucity of faunal decline following oyster loss may be due to the use of alternative habitat types, exceptionally lagged faunal responses, or, perhaps most compelling, a disconnect between preferred and required habitats. Our failure to detect faunal consequences following an oyster population collapse suggests that assumptions of habitat loss (or restoration) effects on estuarine fauna at ecosystem scales are not straightforward and the extrapolation of sub‐estuary‐scale studies may result in poor predictions of future outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Contributors

  Elsevier eBooks · 2024-10-18

  book-chapterOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Exploring the factors that contribute to the development of systems awareness

  The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension · 2024-05-11 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences that contributed to the development of a systems thinking paradigm in instructors in a college of agriculture.Design/Methodology/Approach: A phenomenology design was used to understand the lived experiences of eleven instructors.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Gonadal neoplasia

  Elsevier eBooks · 2024-10-18

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Paradigm Shift Toward Systems Thinking in Colleges of Agriculture

  NACTA Journal · 2024-12-12 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  The world of the 21st Century is a world that is constantly changing. New approaches to higher education need to be considered so graduates can adapt to an increasingly complex world. This article will discuss why and how systems thinking can be developed and utilized in colleges of agriculture. Based on a thorough review of the literature, we propose two new models to advance systems thinking in colleges of agriculture. The first model demonstrates potential outcomes that may occur when matching a learner’s level of conceptualization to the type of problem they are addressing. The second model shows how systems thinking skills should be incorporated into the curriculum via experiential learning to assist individuals in their progression of systems thinking growth. Recommendations for practice and additional research are provided.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Influence of charismatic animals on youths’ environmental knowledge and connection to water through the application of virtual reality tours

  The Journal of Environmental Education · 2024-05-30 · 4 citations

  article

  The term "charismatic" refers to visually or empathetically appealing animals. They act as flagship species to garner interest and participation. This study explored the impact of charismatic animals featured in three virtual reality (VR) tours of an estuary system on youths' learning, connectedness to water (CTW), and tour perceptions. Each tour included a different animal– a charismatic dolphin, a non-charismatic tunicate, and a comparison treatment with no animal. Utilizing convergent mixed methods, the VR tours were distributed to five schools in the Tampa Bay area. Students completed a post-survey (n = 366) and interview (n = 6). Results showed all tours, regardless of animal charisma presence, yielded positive student CTW and estuary knowledge. Students indicated more interest in animals that were weird, interesting, and new to them. Results indicate a larger diversity of animals can be used as interest approaches to engage audiences, yet not overshadow main message objective.

  PublisherDOI

• Ocean Acidification: Effects on Sponges

  EDIS · 2024-06-13

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Approximately 30% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere has been absorbed by the world’s oceans. As CO2 emissions increase due to human activities so does the amount of CO2 absorbed by the oceans. Carbon dioxide lowers the pH of the ocean system, causing ocean acidification (OA). The effects of OA on economically and ecologically important aquatic species is a subject of interest. Sponges are important reef-associated species that provide shelter for fish and crustaceans in reef habitats and can also structure ecosystems through bioerosion, water filtration, and colonization of coral reef areas. This publication considers the effects of OA on marine sponges, with a focus on Florida’s coral reef.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Exploring Systems Thinking Typologies and Paradigms

  SAGE Open · 2024-04-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Today’s agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) sectors face many wicked problems like climate change. Addressing these complex problems will require people to have both social and technical knowledge. However, having knowledge is insufficient. Individuals must be able to think about things as they occur in complex systems. Systems thinking has been proposed as a way of tackling complex problems. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a continuum of systems thinking paradigms, beyond the hard systems thinking and soft systems thinking dichotomy proposed by Checkland. A novel research method called Q methodology was used, which included two steps: (a) the collection of data that forms the Q-sorts and (b) the by-person factor analysis of the Q-sorts. Overall, the findings from this study support the idea that systems thinking occurs on a continuum which includes (a) Hard systems thinking, (b) HARDsoft systems thinking, (c) SOFThard systems thinking and (d) Soft systems thinking. HARDsoft and SOFThard systems thinking were newly discovered in this research. The four systems thinking paradigms identified in this study better reflect the nuances and complexities that are associated with human thought and can provide a more specialized approach to solving complex issues.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Patrick Baker

  Sydney Hospital

  18 shared

• Leslie Sturmer

  University of Florida

  8 shared

• Roger Mann

  6 shared

• David Heuberger

  Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

  5 shared

• J. C. Bunch

  5 shared

• Daniel J. Hornbach

  Macalester College

  5 shared

• J. Evan Ward

  University of Connecticut

  4 shared

• Nicole Stedman

  4 shared

Education

• PhD, Virginia Institute of Marine Science

  William & Mary

  1994

• MS, Biololgy

  University of Oregon

  1988

• BS, Biololgy

  Seattle Pacific University

  1986