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Research Themes

Carbon storage in marine ecosystems

When you picture an ecosystem on land, you probably picture something like a pine forest or a grass-covered prairie. In the open ocean, animals like tiny copepods, fish, and giant whales are the long-lived stocks of carbon. Key papers:

  • carbon, animals, and ocean biomes

  • how whales store and sequester carbon

  • how fisheries could be managed to produce food and store carbon (in review)

Food Chain.png

Climate Surprises

I co-wrote one of the first papers that described a marine heatwave. Since then, I have used sudden changes in ocean temperature to understand how natural and human communities respond to climate surprises. Key papers

  • 2012 Gulf of Maine heatwave

  • How the lobster fishery has and hasn't adapted to marine heatwaves

  • Theory of how ecosystems and people are impacted by surprises

SurprisedCommunities.png

Climate and ecosystems

Most of my research has focused on how marine ecosystems respond to changes in temperature and ocean currents. As climate change has accelerated, climate change impacts have become central. 

  • led the "Oceans and Marine Resources" chapter of the 4th US National Climate Assessment

  • diagnosed how rapid warming contributed to the collapse of Gulf of Maine cod

  • built climate projections for the lobster fisheries in New England

GoM2050EcosystemDiagram.png
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