Blake E. Feist

Background

Blake has been studying and fascinated by fishes since 1982. His research interests have ranged from laboratory studies of gymnotid ethology and electrophysiology, to modeling spatial patterns of anadromous salmonid, groundfish, and cetacean populations at landscape scales. Prior to his arrival at the NWFSC, his studies have included fish population differences in resistance to low pH, and juvenile anadromous salmonid audiology and ethology. He has applied the principles of landscape ecology to characterize patterns and processes in invaded estuaries; develop estuarine restoration site ranking protocols; characterize vegetation change in breached dike estuarine wetlands; assess potential dike-breach restoration sites in estuarine wetlands; and generate an inventory of breached dike estuarine wetlands along the Washington, Oregon, and California coast. Blake has a B.S. in Zoology (University of Wisconsin-Madison,1986), an M.S. in Fisheries (University of Washington, 1991), and a Ph.D. in Fisheries (University of Washington, 1999).

Current Research

In his current position, Blake is responsible for designing and participating in research in two areas: the relationship between various fish populations and their terrestrial/estuarine/marine habitat; and the interaction between non-indigenous species and marine food webs and ecosystems. He uses a landscape scale approach for most of his research, but he is also interested in the effect of climate, spatio-temporal scaling, and various anthropogenic influences.