PI
Students & Postdocs
Information for prospectives
Department
of Environmental Science & Policy
University of
California, Davis
One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616
mlbaskett(at)ucdavis.edu
Overview
TeachingUndergraduate courses:
Environmental Analysis (ESP 1), the survey course in Environmental Science & Policy, co-taught every year
Population Ecology (ESP 121), a course in theoretical population biology, taught alternate years
Graduate courses:
Computational Methods in Population Biology (ECL298), a course in programming for population biology, co-taught alternate years
Topics in Ecology and Evolution (ECL296/PBG292), the invited speaker seminar series (every academic quarter, taught 2008-2011)
Research
Human activities often dominate ecological processes and can cause rapid evolution on ecological time scales. My research is focused on developing theoretical models to investigate how ecological and evolutionary processes interact in response to large-scale, anthropogenically-driven global change, particularly in marine systems. In addition to exploring how global change affects population persistence and community structure, this research investigates topics where evolution is vital to understanding ecological dynamics and conserving biodiversity. Projects include:
- The interaction between spatially and temporally heterogeneous selection: Salmon as a model system
- Coral reefs and climate change
- Marine reserve design and life history variation
Movement between locations might either impede local adaptation or help maintain a population at a given location, depending on factors such as the relative population sizes across locations, differences in selection regime between locations, the amount of connectivity between locations, and temporal in variability selection. While these factors have been explored separately, how these factors interact to determine the effect of gene flow on local adaptation and population dynamics remains less well understood. This project will develop a suite of models to investigate how spatial and temporal variation in selection and migration interact to determine the effect of gene flow on local adaptation and population dynamics. These models will be based on salmon that receive inputs from aquaculture and hatchery programs, as the scale and variety of such programs provide a data-rich source of accidental experiments in exchange between populations that experience differential natural and artificial selection, and this application will provide an opportunity to inform the management of hatchery and aquaculture programs. (photo: fishbase.org)
Burgess, S.C., R.S. Waples, and M.L. Baskett. Local adaptation when competition depends on phenotypic similarity. In press, Evolution.
M.L. Baskett and R.S. Waples. 2013. Evaluating Alternative Strategies for Minimizing Unintended Fitness Consequences of Cultured Individuals on Wild Populations. Conservation Biology 27(1):83-94. [Abstract] [PDF] [Appendix]
M.L. Baskett and R. Gomulkiewicz. 2011. Introgressive hybridization as a mechanism for species rescue. Theoretical Ecology 4:223–239. [Abstract] [PDF] [Appendix]
As
the
frequency and magnitude of temperature extremes increase with
climate change, mass coral bleaching (potentially fatal loss of
symbiotic algae from the coral animal) events caused by thermal
stress threaten the persistence of coral reefs. However,
corals and their symbiotic algae may respond to climate change
through community shifts, physiological acclimation, and genetic
adaptation. Using theoretical models, my collaborators and I
explored the potential for coral response via rapid adaptation and
community shifts and compared indicators of corals’ capacity to
survive climate change, including in the context of additional
anthropogenic impacts. These models further the
understanding of the interaction between evolutionary and
ecological processes, inform conservation management decisions,
and create a theoretical framework for synthesizing coral
bleaching data. (photo: reefbase.org)
M.L.
Baskett,
R.M. Nisbet, C.V. Kappel, P.J. Mumby, and S.D.
Gaines. 2010. Conservation management approaches to
protecting the capacity for corals to respond to climate change:
a theoretical comparison. Global
Change Biology 16(4):1229-1246. [Abstract]
[PDF]
[Appendix]
[Faculty of
1000]
M.L. Baskett, S.D. Gaines, and R.M. Nisbet. 2009. Symbiont diversity may help coral reefs survive moderate climate change. Ecological Applications 19(1):3-17. [Abstract] [PDF] [Appendix] [Press coverage: Environmental Science & Technology]
Large-scale
anthropogenic
impacts such as fisheries on marine ecosystems has led to a rapid
rise in interest in no-take marine protected areas. This
project explored the implications of population and
community-level life history variation for the effective design of
marine reserve networks. In particular, this research
investigated how reserve protection and fisheries impacts vary
with growth, reproduction, and dispersal within and across
populations, which has the potential to alter selection pressure
and community structure. For this research, my collaborators
and I constructed models that draw from a broad array of topics in
theoretical ecology and inform fisheries and conservation
management. (photo: fishbase.org)Relevant publications:
J.W. White, L.W. Botsford, A. Hastings, M.L. Baskett, D.M. Kaplan, and L.A.K. Barnett. In press. Transient responses of fished populations to marine reserve establishment. Conservation Letters. [Abstract] [PDF]
J.W. White, L.W. Botsford, M.L. Baskett, L.A.K. Barnett, R.J. Barr, and A. Hastings. 2011. Linking models and monitoring data in assessing performance of no-take marine reserves. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 9:(7)390-399. [Abstract] [PDF] [Appendix]
M.L. Baskett and A.K. Salomon. 2010. Recruitment facilitation can drive alternative states on temperate reefs. Ecology 91(6):1763-1773. [Abstract] [PDF]
R.A. Pelc, M. Baskett, T. Tranci, S.D. Gaines, and R.R. Warner. 2009. Quantifying larval export from South African marine reserves. Marine Ecology Progress Series 394:65-78. [Abstract] [PDF]
E.S. Dunlop, M.L. Baskett, M. Heino, and U. Dieckmann. 2009. The propensity of marine reserves to reduce the evolutionary effects of fishing in a migratory species. Evolutionary Applications 2(3):371-393. [Abstract] [PDF]
M.L. Baskett. 2007. Simple fisheries and marine reserve models with species interactions: an overview and example with facilitation. CalCOFI Reports 48:71-81. [PDF]
M.L. Baskett, J.S. Weitz, and S.A. Levin. 2007. The evolution of dispersal in reserve networks. American Naturalist 170(1):59–78. [Abstract] [PDF] [Appendix A and B]
M.L. Baskett, F. Micheli, and S.A. Levin. 2007. Designing marine reserves for interacting species: Insights from theory. Biological Conservation 137(2):163-179. [Abstract] [PDF]
M.L. Baskett. 2006. Prey size refugia and trophic cascades in marine reserves. Marine Ecology Progress Series 328:285-293. [Abstract] [PDF]
M.L. Baskett, M. Yoklavich, and M.S. Love. 2006. Predation, competition, and the recovery of overexploited fish stocks in marine reserves. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 63(6):1214-1229. [Abstract] [PDF]
M.L. Baskett, S.A. Levin, S.D. Gaines, and J. Dushoff. 2005. Marine reserve design and the evolution of size at maturation in harvested fish. Ecological Applications 15(3):882-901. [Abstract] [PDF] [Appendix]
Perkins, T.A., B.L. Phillips, M.L. Baskett, and A. Hastings. Evolution of dispersal and life history interact to drive accelerating spread of an invasive species. In press, Ecology Letters.
Aalto, E.A. and M.L. Baskett. In press. Quantifying the balance between bycatch and predator or competitor release for non-target species. Ecological Applications.
M.L.
Baskett. 2012. Integrating biomechanics into the
basic theory of community and evolutionary ecology. Journal
of Experimental Biology 215:948-961.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
M.L. Baskett. Evolution of Dispersal. 2012. In: Encyclopedia of Theoretical Ecology (A. Hastings and L. Gross, eds.), University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, pp. 192-198.
J.L. Orrock, M.L. Baskett, and R.D. Holt. 2010. Spatial interplay of plant competition and consumer foraging mediates plant coexistence and drives the invasion ratchet. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277:3307–3315. [Abstract] [PDF] [Appendix]
J.L. Orrock, R.D. Holt, and M.L. Baskett. 2010. Refuge-mediated apparent competition in plant-consumer interactions. Ecology Letters 13:11-20. [Abstract] [PDF]
M.L. Baskett and B.S. Halpern. 2009. Marine Ecosystem Services. In: Guide to Ecology (S.A. Levin, ed.), Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, pp. 619-624.
L. Jin, M.L. Baskett, L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, L.A. Zhivotovsky, M.W. Feldman and N.A. Rosenberg. 2000. Microsatellite evolution in modern humans: a comparison of two data sets from the same populations. Annals of Human Genetics 64:117-134. [Abstract] [PDF]