Rate My Professor Elka Porter

Elka T. Porter is Associate Professor of Marine Science and Department Chair in the Marine Science Department at St. Mary's College of Maryland. She holds a Ph.D. in Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park; a Diplom (M.S.) in Zoology with minors in Physical Oceanography and Botany from Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Germany, including an exchange year at Brown University; and a B.S. in Biology from Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel. Originating from the North Sea coast of Northern Germany, Porter developed an early passion for marine sciences. During her Diplom program, she worked as a summer research assistant at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Her Ph.D. research involved studying corals with Ken Sebens and participating in a saturation Hydrolab mission in the Florida Keys. Following her doctorate, she completed a postdoc focused on physical-biological-chemical interactions and taught courses such as the Ecology of the Chesapeake Bay, prior to joining St. Mary's College of Maryland around 2022.

Porter's research centers on the effects of water flow and organisms on sediment-water interactions, or benthic-pelagic coupling processes, and their subsequent impacts on water quality, with particular relevance to the Chesapeake Bay. She designed and utilizes shear turbulence resuspension mesocosms (STURM) for experiments mimicking tides and storms at the Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL) in St. Leonard, Maryland, since 2015, often involving undergraduate students. Key publications include Porter ET, Cornwell JC (2023), Mesocosm Approaches to the Examination of Benthic-Pelagic Coupling, with emphasis on turbulence, Limnology and Oceanography; Porter ET et al. (2022), Effect of tidal resuspension with oyster biodeposits on the nutrient and oxygen dynamics, Marine Ecology Progress Series; Porter ET et al. (2020), Effects of hard clam density and bottom shear stress on cohesive sediment erodibility, Journal of Marine Research; Porter ET et al. (2020), Effects of resuspension of eastern oyster biodeposits on phytoplankton community structure, Marine Ecology Progress Series; and Porter ET, Breitburg DL (2016), Eastern oyster valve gape behavior under diel-cycling hypoxia, Marine Biology. Her contributions include findings that tidal resuspension can decrease water clarity, release nutrients, increase phytoplankton, and alter ecosystem dynamics. Porter received the University of Baltimore Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2019 and the Award Certificate of Best Collaboration of Professor with Undergraduate Supplemental Instructor in 2014. She actively mentors students through summer research opportunities at facilities like the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and PEARL, providing hands-on experiences akin to her own formative internships.