Current Research Themes

Kelp forest ecology

Kelp forests create food and critical habitat, but these dynamic ecosystems are in decline in many parts of the world. we are working throughout the NE Pacific on studies of how kelp forests act as a trophic resource for herbivores such as urchins and abalone, and the roll of the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia) in regulating urchin populations.

Algal community composition and food web relationships on the Western Antarctic Peninsula

This NSF-funded project started in the spring of 2019 with a scuba diving research expedition on the Laurence M. Gould. We surveyed the shallow subtidal and collected seaweeds and invertebrates for food web analysis with fatty acid tracers. Photo: Julie Schram. 

Marine benthic invertebrate lipid metabolism

I am working on several projects, using an assortment of focal model organisms (urchins, isopods, crabs, gastropods), aimed at understanding the lipid metabolism and trophic transfer of dietary fatty acids to the tissues of invertebrates. How are 'trophic tracers' transferred to basal consumers? How does food quality and environment influence these processes? Photo: Reyn Yoshioka.