Heather Kelley

Heather Kelley

Ms. Kelley is pursuing an M.S. in applied marine science at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). Working at CSUMB's Institute for Applied Marine Ecology (IfAME), her master's thesis will characterize the deep sub-tidal communities inside and outside of newly designated marine protected areas (MPAs) along the north central coast of California. Ms. Kelley has participated in several research cruises along California's coast using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to collect video and still imagery of different seafloor habitats and the fishes and invertebrates associated with them. In addition to providing science data to support management decisions, this research provides exceptional opportunities to engage audiences beyond the scientific community. Training from CSUMB/IfAME, with a focus on science communication and management-driven science will allow her to better interpret the research of scientists and engage public audiences in ocean conservation. Previously, Ms. Kelley completed her B.S. degree in Marine Biology at the University of California Los Angeles, and worked in the education department at the Long Beach Aquarium. She also worked in marketing and as a marketing manager for five years, honing communication skills, producing engaging websites and professional marketing collateral. After completion of her thesis, she expects to continue work on applied marine conservation issues as a scientific advisor, writer or outreach coordinator to bridge the gap between scientific and public communities. Ms. Kelley promotes science communications through volunteer work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and participation in local and regional scientific symposiums. She is especially interested in fish-habitat associations, marine pollution, invertebrates and diving in the greater Monterey Bay area.

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Shannon Lyday

Shannon Lyday

Shannon Lyday is pursuing a Master's degree in Marine Science from Hawaii Pacific University. She attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, majoring in Environmental Science with a minor in Business Administration. Before coming to HPU, Shannon worked for eight years at the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association in San Francisco, the non-profit partner of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Shannon managed Beach Watch, a long-term monitoring program that utilizes the expertise of over 100 citizen scientists to collect data on 41 beaches along the central California coast. Beach Watch documents the distribution and abundance of live and dead marine birds and mammals and the patterns of oil and tarball deposition. Shannon also assisted with designing methodologies for at-sea surveys in the Sanctuary in partnership with PRBO Conservation Science. The ACCESS (Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies) cruises collect data to evaluate the trends in the distribution and abundance of seabirds and marine mammals relative to changes in ocean conditions. These cruises stimulated Shannon's interest in pursuing a graduate degree to investigate the associations of seabirds with biological and physical processes in the ocean. Shannon's thesis will analyze seabird distribution and abundance data collected from vessel-based surveys in the California Current in collaboration with NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Her goal is to create a multivariate index utilizing shearwater and environmental data that can predict commercial fish catch. In addition to her thesis project, Shannon is leading a study of marine debris ingestion in Wedge-tailed Shearwaters in collaboration with Oikonos.

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Andrea M. Quattrini

Andrea M. Quattrini
Philadelphia, PA

Andrea graduated with a BS in biology from Millersville University, PA and a MS in marine biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). Andrea is currently pursuing a PhD at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. Before beginning the PhD program in January 2009, she spent 6 years studying open ocean, shelf-edge, and deep-sea coral ecosystems off the southeastern US. During this time she participated in over a dozen offshore cruises and had the opportunity to dive in the Johnson Sea-Link submersible. Andrea has broad interests in deep-sea ecology that include deep-sea coral reefs and associated fishes. Particularly, she is interested in the spatial and temporal distributions and the interconnectedness of deep-sea species, communities, and populations. At Temple, she will be studying the genetic connectivity of deepwater gorgonians, including Callogorgia americana (Family Primnoidae), in the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. She hopes to obtain a position in academia or a government agency where she can conduct research, educate students, and work with managers in order to deepen our understanding of and effectively conserve precious habitats.

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Catherine Benson

Catherine Benson
Ann Arbor, MI

Catherine Benson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Ms. Benson received a Masters of Environmental Science from Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BA in Biology and Environmental Policy from Colby College. Her dissertation research examines the extent to which hybrid governance arrangements result in improved marine conservation outcomes in Cambodia and the Pacific Islands. Ms. Benson is investigating the role of government, non-government, and corporate actors in supporting marine conservation efforts in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and American Samoa. Ms. Benson hopes her research will document successful governance arrangements that can be used to design effective marine conservation policy that enhances biodiversity conservation while simultaneously recognizing and respecting Cambodian and Pacific cultural ecologies and political traditions.

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Corinne Gibble

Corinne Gibble
Santa Cruz, CA

Corinne Gibble is pursuing a Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Ms. Gibble received her Master's degree in Marine Science from San Jose State University's Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and received a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from the University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She is especially impassioned about wildlife health, foraging ecology, ocean water quality, and anthropogenic effects on marine systems; and finds that a holistic ecosystem analysis is the best approach to solve a wide range of environmental problems. Her academic work has centered around marine mammal foraging ecology and seabird health. She has spent time working for the Whale Center of New England, the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and the Central Coast Seabird Health Study in congruence with Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response, California Department of Fish and Game and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. Ms. Gibble's doctoral research examines the effects of the cyanobacterium: Myrcocystis aeruginosa on marine and estuarine birds in central California. Recently toxins associated with the ostensibly freshwater cyanobacterium M. aeruginosa have been detected in the nearshore marine ecosystem of central California. Microcystin toxins produced by M. aeruginosa have caused illness and death in humans, dogs, wildlife and livestock in other areas. Because central California supports the largest density and biomass of seabirds in the entire California Current System (CCS), and Monterey Bay has a high abundance of birds inhabiting the land-sea interface, toxins in this area may have especially deleterious and wide ranging effects on marine and estuarine birds. Ms. Gibble intends to explore how M. aeruginosa is being transported to the marine environment, and what potential health risks it may be posing to marine and estuarine birds. Corinne would like to see this research aid the development of a monitoring program for harmful algal bloom related seabird mortality for the central California coast. She expects to continue her career in research, and hopes to obtain a position in academia or at a government agency.

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Emily Klein

Emily Klein
Newmarket, NH

Ms. Klein completed her undergraduate degree in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) with a minor in Photography. While attending UCSD, she became interested in marine ecology and conservation through study abroad in Australia and a graduate course at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Emily graduated in 2003 and spent the next several years gaining field research experience with various projects including investigating the presence of Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) in Yellowstone National Park, mist-netting forest birds in Hawai’i and Jamaica, and tracking river otters (Lutra canadensis) and investigating the effects of fire as a management tool in Kentucky. She rturned to the field of marine ecosystem when she moved to New Hampshire to intern at the University of New Hampshire (UNH).  She is currently completing a master’s degree on the historical herring fishery in the Gulf of Maine.  Her doctorate research will be in the Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science (NRESS) program at UNH.  For her PhD, Emily is looking to expand her master’s thesis analysis to include additional input variables and species, and to explore the application of additional statistical analysis, including the capacity for developing future scenarios. She will be working closely with Catherine Marzin, the History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) group, and the NOAA Sanctuaries to expand our ability to investigate historical marine ecology. She hopes such work will provide greater understanding of long-term ecosystem dynamics and information for future management and conservation.

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Erin LaBrecque

Erin LaBrecque
Beaufort, NC

Ms. LaBrecque is currently pursuing her doctorate in marine biology from Duke University.  After spending years on research vessels observing the patchy nature of the oceans, she became interested in determining what biological and physical factors influence species distributions.  Using spatial habitat modeling, Ms. LaBrecque plans to study the biological and physical influences of frontal zones on the distribution of upper trophic level predators at multiple spatial and temporal scales.  Her research will lead to the development of successful marine management plans and add to the growing body of knowledge on adaptive MPA management.  Her goal is to obtain a research position at either an academic institution or a government agency where she can continue to produce science which will contribute to the successful management and conservation of our precious marine resources.

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Jessica Joyner

Jessica Joyner
Athens, GA

Ms. Joyner completed her bachelor's degree in Biology with a certificate in Living Marine Resource Ecology at Florida State University. Currently, she is pursuing her doctorate in Ecology at the University of Georgia. Ms. Joyner began her research experiences as an intern and diving assistant in Curacao, NA, working with marine sponges and their resistance and resilience to disturbance. This fieldwork continued into a lab position identifying sponges, both experiences developed her interest in marine sponges and their important functional roles on coral reefs. For Ms. Joyner's dissertation, her research is focused on the sewage contamination of the reef environment, specifically how sponges may facilitate earlier indication of such contamination. She is also investigating how enteric bacteria from contamination (e.g., Serratia marcescens) are found within the symbiotic microbial communities of sponges and corals. Her work will assist the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary with their coral reef management and water quality research. Ms. Joyner plans to continue her investigative research on the human impacts to coral reefs and teaching others the importance of being good environmental stewards.

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Jessica Lopez

Jessica Lopez
Honolulu, HI

Jessica grew up in Santa Fe, NM, where she developed a fascination with the big, faraway, foreign thing called the ocean. She obtained a B.S. in Marine Biology with a minor in Pyschology at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). While at UCSC Jessica worked with the marine mammal physiology project at Long Marine Lab, where she worked closely with bottlenose dolphins, California sea lions, and Southern sea otters and became interested in marine mammal conservation issues. After graduating, Ms. Lopez moved to Hawaii where she worked for NOAA's Hawaiian monk seal research program. She spent five summer field seasons in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands studying the Hawaiian monk seal in an effort to understand the threats to this highly endangered species. Jessica is now working on a M.S. at Hawaii Pacific University. Her project involves studying contaminants in Hawaiian monk seal tissue from the Main Hawaiian Islands, the only area in which the Hawaiian monk seal population is not in decline. However it is also an area with the potential for a high amount of environmental contamination which could have a direct impact on the reproductive potential and immune response of the seals. Jessica will be analyzing contaminants in the Hawaiian monk seal population from the Main Hawaiian Islands in relation to life-history traits of the seals and geographic patterns of contamination to identify specific risk factors to this important Hawaiian monk seal population. Jessica plans to pursue a career in conservation research with an emphasis on endangered species.

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Julia Burrows

Julia Burrows
Beaufort, NC

Julia Burrows is pursuing a Ph.D. in Marine Science and Conservation at the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Julia earned a M.S. in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Florida. Her research interests include the ecology, behavior, and conservation of apex marine predators, such as marine mammals. She is interested in understanding how oceanographic and environmental variability influence the distribution of mid-trophic level prey species, and ultimately how these factors influence the abundance, distribution, and movements of top predators. For her dissertation research, Julia will document the effects of prey type, patch size, and density on the fine scale foraging behavior of large whales in both space and time. She hopes to gain insight into the role apex predators play in marine ecosystems so we can make informed management decisions on how to best conserve and protect our marine resources. Julia's ultimate goal is to earn a position in academia or with a government agency, such as NOAA, where she can impact management and conservation strategies through her research and work closely with students to help educate and inspire future generations of marine biologists.

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Kathleen Morrow

Kathleen Morrow
Auburn, AL

Ms. Morrow has been inspired by the complexity of coral reef ecosystems since childhood and has extensively studied the ecology of cnidarians for the past 9 years.  She completed her B.S. degree with a minor in chemistry from The University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) in May 2003.  She completed an undergraduate honors thesis on the effect of Diadema antillarum, long-spined sea urchins, on coral-algal interactions.  Ms. Morrow completed a Master’s degree in August 2006 from California State University at Northridge.  Her Master’s research was conducted along Santa Catalina Island and primarily focused on the study of kelp forest community ecology and biomechanics. These studies examined the interactions between a common corallimorpharian anemone and macroalgae, and are applicable to her current research on coral-algal competition on Caribbean coral reefs.  Ms. Morrow has recently completed her second year as a Ph.D. student at Auburn University.  Her dissertation research examines the community structure and stability of coral-algal-microbial associations.  Ms. Morrow’s doctoral research will quantify the natural microbial community associated with non-diseased corals and those exposed to physical and chemical interactions with macroalgae using culture-dependent and -independent methods (e.g. molecular analysis of bacterial community fingerprints). She hopes to develop a baseline for comparison so that researchers may better determine the mechanisms leading to the initiation and progression of coral disease.  These studies are currently conducted off the coast of Summerland Key, Florida and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

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Katie Wrubel

Katie Wrubel

Katie Wrubel is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Environmental Science at Washington State University Vancouver. Her thesis research is looking at fish populations and their habitat associations with biogenic structures (e.g., deep-sea corals and sponges) and physical habitat features (boulders, cobbles, etc.) within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) at three spatial scales using archived remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video. Katie's fascination with deep-sea research started while she was an undergraduate at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB), where she graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy and a minor in Mathematics. While at CSUMB, Katie was accepted as a Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Scholar and Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholar which funded her research assistantship in the Institute for Applied Marine Ecology (IfAME) lab. During the course of her assistantship, she participated in an ongoing research partnership between IfAME and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) in their site characterization efforts and marine protected area monitoring activities, which included multiple towed camera sled and ROV cruises. Part of the focus of Katie's assistantship was aiding in creating an interactive website utilizing video collected within the MBNMS. This website (the Shelf Characterization and Image Display: http://sep.csumb.edu/ifame/scid/) is targeted towards a broader public audience and allows for video data to be rapidly disseminated and easily accessible. Katie also used video collected from the MBNMS for her undergraduate thesis focusing on how the scale at which video are sampled impacts the resulting data. Katie found that real-time, coarse-scale sampling was as effective in recording sessile invertebrate distribution as fine-scale sampling. This research resulted in Katie pursuing her Master's degree to investigate how spatial scale impacts rockfish (genus Sebastes) habitat associations. Katie hopes to better understand the habitats and scales that influence the distribution of rockfish and provide this information to management agencies for future marine spatial planning efforts. This research will also be integrated into the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 5-year groundfish Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) Review Process.

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Kelly Kearney

Kelly Kearney
Princeton, NJ

Ms. Kearney is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at Princeton University, working with Jorge Sarmiento in the Department of Geosciences.  Her research focuses on incorporating upper trophic level species (i.e. anything above the level of zooplankton) and top-down forcing factors into traditional ocean biogeochemical models that focus on nutrient cycling and primary production.  With this model, Kelly hopes to investigate and assess the importance of the various factors affecting oceanic food webs, including both bottom-up climate forcing and top-down anthropogenic effects.

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Lauren Garske

Lauren Garske
Petaluma, CA

Ms. Garske earned her Bachelor's degree in Marine Biology (with a minor in Chemistry) from the University of California at Santa Cruz in March 2000, where she was driven by interests in marine ecology and coastal water quality. In the years that followed, she gained practical experience by working on a variety of research endeavors including: mercury contamination in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, comparative habitat use by juvenile flatfish in the Monterey Bay, scallop recruitment patterns in the Sea of Cortez, ecological monitoring of reef communities in the Galapagos Islands, and anthropogenic impacts on nearshore habitats around Santa Catalina Island. She has co-authored several publications in marine conservation and was directly involved with the IUCN 2007 Red-Listing of 15 algae species from Galapagos. Returning to her passion for coastal water quality and armed with a breadth of experience, Ms. Garske is now a doctoral candidate in Ecology at the University of California at Davis. For her dissertation, she is developing an interdisciplinary 'zone of impact' (ZOI) approach for coastal marine pollution, which uses nearshore oceanographic data to predict the risk of exposure to river-borne runoff in adjacent ecosystems. With her field studies based in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, she has collected extensive oceanographic data from the nearshore and is now refining ZOI predictions by examining metal fractions in the area, particularly within kelp forest ecosystems. Additionally, Ms. Garske is quite interested in the flow of scientific information through policy networks and plans to conduct a social network analysis of local coastal pollution policy actors. She expects to continue her career in applied research along the interdisciplinary interface and to work directly with decision-makers in environmental policy.

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Melinda Conners

Melinda Conners
Santa Cruz, CA

Melinda Conners is a doctoral candidate in the Ocean Sciences department at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). Prior to attending UCSC, Melinda graduated in 2003 with her B.S. in Biology from UC San Diego and since then has gained extensive experience in the field working on a diverse collection of research projects. She was first introduced to the complicated and intriguing lives of seabirds while working as an intern at southeast Farallon Island in 2006, and it was here that she saw how seabirds can be used as indicator species to monitor ecosystem health. Ms. Conners is interested in how marine species respond behaviorally to changing and dynamic environments. Her research at UCSC is part of a long-term tracking study of Laysan and black-footed albatrosses conducted at the French Frigate Shoals in the Papahanaumokuakea National Monument since 2002. She will be using satellite and GPS telemetry movement data to look at the behavioral (habitat utilization and range shifts, foraging activity), physiological (corticosterone hormone level, mass change) and dietary (prey composition) response of breeding Laysan and black- footed albatrosses to different ocean conditions across years, including a year of a strong El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event in 2010. Melinda is interested in using the responses of albatrosses to current patterns of natural climate variability (e.g. ENSO events) to gauge the potential adaptability of these species to changing ocean conditions induced by global warming and climactic forcing.

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Michelle S.T. Meadows

Michelle S.T. Meadows
Melbourne, FL

Michelle Meadows earned a B.S. from the University of Florida (UF) in 2008 in Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, and minored in Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences. Michelle is primarily interested in conserving and managing sport fish and associated habitats. She grew up in the Florida Keys (Islamorada) where her daily interactions with the marine environment sparked her interest in conservation and management. Ms. Meadows is pursuing a M.S. in Marine Biology at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) in Melbourne, FL. Michelle's current research focuses on the spawning of snapper species (Lutjanidae) along the Florida's east-central and northeast coast, with comparisons to spawning in southern populations. She plans to delineate current and historical spawning areas for further research and sustainable fishery management decisions in the region by surveying local commercial and recreational anglers and through existing databases and literature. Michelle anticipates continuing her research efforts on snappers and spawning after she completes her M.S. degree. Ms. Meadows believes successful conservation and management of our ocean's fishes depend on the integration of adaptive management practices, stakeholder collaboration, educational outreach, and proper scientific research. She hopes to eventually establish an on-going monitoring program between universities and local anglers to monitor local snapper spawning activity.

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Rebecca Asch

Rebecca Asch
La Jolla, CA

Ms. Asch is pursuing a Ph.D. in biological oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Prior to her doctoral studies, Ms. Asch gained experience in marine science through completing an M.S. degree at University of Rhode Island and working at two NOAA line offices, the Climate Change Science Program, and an environmental consulting company. Through these experiences, Ms. Asch had the opportunity to conduct a national inventory of coral reef monitoring projects, investigate the effects of trawling on benthic epifauna, document the expansion of an invasive tunicate species, and serve as a coordinator for inter-agency working groups planning climate research. Ms. Asch's doctoral research examines how climate change and climate variability affect the phenology of phytoplankton and small, pelagic fishes in the California Current. Phenology is the study of seasonal, biological cycles controlled by weather and climate. Increased temperature associated with global warming is leading to the earlier onset of spring in many areas, while regional climate models for the California Current predict that seasonal upwelling may be delayed due to heightened ocean stratification and/or altered wind patterns. These changes in physical oceanography are likely to affect the timing of phytoplankton blooms. Many fishes time their spawning to coincide with these blooms. During years when fish spawn early or late relative to the bloom, larval survival rates may decline, potentially resulting in lower year-class strength and reduced fishery landings. While at Scripps, Ms. Asch has also conducted research on the effects of ocean acidification on larval fish, the influence of eddies on fish spawning habitat, and the consumption of plastic debris by mid-water fishes in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

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Sherri Eldridge

Sherri Eldridge
Dartmouth, MA

Sherri is pursuing a Ph.D. in Living Marine Resources Science and Management at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She recently graduated from the University of Maine with a B.S. in Biology, and a minor in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Sherri is researching the somatosensory (body sensation) system of baleen whales to discover if they receive low-frequency communications as a vibratory sense, as elephants do through their feet. To understand this process, Sherri studies the morphology and neurotransmitters associated with mechanoreceptors (pressure detectors) in the dermal tissue of whales. The second phase of her research is the creation of a multimodal sensory map, indicating how whales perceive objects and triangulate signal sources. This knowledge may assist in development of a ship-alert device to prevent whale fatalities, and encourage international marine policies to reduce man-made noises that mask endangered species' communications. Sherri has also conducted parrotfish and coral reef studies, and worked in project design, writing and communications. In 2009 she received an Honorable Mention of the Frederick Fairfield Memorial Award for innovative research in marine mammalogy, and was a national Truman Scholar Finalist in recognition of public service and advocacy. Her goals are to expand the field of marine mammal neuroscience and cognition, and work with the National Marine Sanctuaries to build support for marine protection issues through environmental literacy and advocacy.

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