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 Dynamics (ESP 121), a course in theoretical ecology, taught alternate years
Graduate courses:
Topics in Ecology and Evolution (ECL296/PBG292), the invited speaker seminar series (every academic quarter)
Research
Human disturbance often dominates 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 anthropogenic impacts, particularly in marine systems. In addition to exploring how disturbance 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)
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.
Conservation
management approaches to protecting the capacity for corals to respond
to climate change: a theoretical comparison. In press, Global Change Biology.
M.L. Baskett, S.D. Gaines, and R.M. Nisbet. 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:
M.L. Baskett and A.K. Salomon. Recruitment facilitation can drive alternative states on temperate reefs. In press, Ecology.
R.A. Pelc, M. Baskett, T. Tranci, S.D. Gaines, and R.R. Warner. Quantifying larval export from South African marine reserves. In press, Marine Ecology Progress Series.
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]
J.L. Orrock, R.D. Holt, and M.L. Baskett. Refuge-mediated apparent competition in plant-consumer interactions. In review.
J.L. Orrock, M.L. Baskett, and R.D. Holt. Spatial coincidence of consumer foraging and plant competition determine the strength of refuge-mediated apparent competition and drive the invasion ratchet. In review.
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]