Seminars

My main research interests are focused on developing and applying new autonomous biogeochemical sensing technology. I use these new instruments to study various marine processes, especially in the coastal ocean where impacts of ocean change are felt most strongly by society. For example, we have used moored instrumentation to make habitat specific ocean acidification predictions in Southern California, and developed benthic flux systems to measure net calcification rates on coral reefs as a proxy for reef health. Currently our group is working on improving benthic flux systems for long term, sustained measurements; studying high frequency dynamics in coastal systems such as coral reefs, kelp forests, and sea grass beds; operating pH sensors on underwater gliders; and refining our thermodynamic model of CO2 chemistry in seawater to establish robust calibration protocols for pH sensors on autonomous sensor networks such as gliders and profiling floats. 

I have been a scientist at MBARI since 2017. I received my Ph.D. at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego under Todd Martz, and did a postdoc under Ken Caldeira at the Carnegie Institution for Science 

I also hold an adjunct faculty position in the Ocean Sciences (link: https://oceansci.ucsc.edu/) department at the University of California Santa Cruz. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Zachos's research interests encompass a wide variety of problems related to the biological, chemical, and climatic evolution of late Cretaceous and Cenozoic oceans. He measures the chemical composition of shells from marine sediments to reconstruct past changes in ocean temperature & circulation, continental ice-volume, productivity, and carbon cycling. His research is oriented toward identifying the mechanisms responsible for driving long and short-term changes in global climate.

Zachos, his students, and colleagues are currently participating in several projects oriented toward understanding the nature of rapid and extreme climate transitions in earth's past. These projects involve the application of stable isotope and trace metal ratios to reconstruct the ocean temperature and chemistry for several episodes of extreme climates including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (~56 mya), the middle- and early Eocene Climatic Optimums, as well as subsequent long-term cooling trends. This also includes work to quantify rare episodes of ocean acidification (acid oceans) that accompanied several of the transient warmings. He is also utilizing sediment archives to establish the approximate timing and extent of continental glaciations during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs (between 15 to 35 million years ago).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiorenza Micheli is a marine ecologist and conservation biologist conducting research and teaching at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, where she is the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science and the co-director, with Jim Leape, of Center for Ocean Solutions (www.centerforoceansolutions.org). Micheli’s research focuses on the processes shaping marine communities and incorporating this understanding in the management and conservation of marine ecosystems. Her current research projects investigate social and ecological drivers of the resilience of small-scale fisheries to climatic impacts in Baja California, Mexico, the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of coastal hypoxia and ocean acidification in the California Current large marine ecosystem, the ecological role and spatial ecology of parrotfish and reef sharks in the coral reefs of the Pacific Line Islands, the effects of ocean acidification on seagrass, rocky reef and kelp forest communities, and the performance and management of marine protected Areas in the Mediterranean Sea. She is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

 

Manabu earned his PhD in Bioagricultural Sciences from Nagoya University, Japan; where he also received his Masters and Bachelor degrees. Manabu’s research interests are in bioluminescence, evolutionary novelty, and evolutionary developmental biology. At MBARI, Manabu’s fellowship will focus on important questions in deep-sea bioluminescence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Katherine Sammler is trained as a geographer, with a background in atmospheric science and physics. She is currently an assistant professor at California State University Maritime in the department of Global Studies & Maritime Affairs. She conducts research at the intersection of science and politics in the realm of oceans, atmospheres, and outer space. In all areas, her work considers the role of knowledge, law, and power in defining global commons, access, and environmental justice. She has recently published on the politics of seabed mining and indigenous rights in New Zealand, and public versus private rights to offplanet resources at the Spaceport America launch site in New Mexico. She is currently conducting research on astronomy and space infrastructure in Hawaii in relation to settler colonial observation and occupation.