Current Projects
Project ECOTONEIn collaboration with the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Space Force, and Gaviota Coast homeowners, we are using camera traps to understand how coastal wildlife uses beaches, rocky intertidal, and other coastal ecotonal habitat across a landscape with varying human impact. We recently published some of our findings in the journal Food Webs!
Also, check out Project ECOTONE in the news! |
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Parasites in the Rocky IntertidalParasites play important structuring and energetic roles in ecological networks. We know parasitism is common in other intertidal food webs, such as salt marshes, sand flats, and beaches. Are parasites important in the rocky intertidal?
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Life On Top: The role of endosymbionts and concomitant predation in food websSpace is extremely limited in the RIZ. Many organisms maximize survival by settling on top of other living things, a process known as epibiosis. But what happens to the epibiont when the host symbiont gets eaten by a predator?
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The Nicothoid ProjectIn Fall 2021, we discovered a potentially new species of symbiotic egg predator infesting the egg masses of commercially important rock crabs. This tiny crustacean, a member of the copepod family Nicothoidae, could represent a serious threat to the rock crab fishery. Is its sudden appearance an outbreak or has it been hiding in plain sight?
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My Research Team
None of this research would be possible without my incredible team of UCSB undergraduate researchers!
JuniperJuniper is a 3 year old Blue Heeler/Lab mix. She dips her toes in all of our research projects but especially loves intertidal fieldwork!
Jade MorrisJade is a senior College of Creative Studies undergraduate leading the Nicothoid Project! She is our expert copepodologist and is also describing another novel copepod species in addition to our little nicothoid.
Max CrawfordMax is a third year student studying Pharmacology. He is from Los Angeles, California. Max likes to ski, snowboard, hike, swim, listen to music, and he likes all things parasitic.
Carson GadlerCarson is on Team Nico!
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Sophia LeuconaSophia is one of the students in charge of the Nicothoid Project! In the future, she plans to continue to study species interactions and how that may affect conservation strategies and fisheries management. She really enjoys conducting research with such an amazing team (including the rock crabs, of course).
Emily HascallEmily Hascall is a senior at UCSB, studying marine biology within the College of Creative Studies. During her time as an undergraduate, Emily has interned for five different labs at UCSB, completed two field work programs, completed her AAUS dive certification, and worked at the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute. Currently Emily is working both as an intern for the Kuris lab completing an interaction matrix of the Santa Barbara intertidal zone, and the Burkepile lab creating orthomosaics. Emily plans to obtain her PhD within marine biology, hoping to further study interaction matrices, coral reef ecology, and marine conservation.
Jaden OrliJaden is a first year CCS Biology student with a broad interest in the roles of microorganisms and parasitic individuals in modulating community dynamics and their impact on large scale ecosystem processes. She also enjoys scuba diving and hopes to incorporate diving into her future work. Jaden actually first joined our lab when she was only 16 years old during UCSB's 2019 Research Mentorship Program!
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