Students & Postdocs: research interests

For information on Jaime, see his website at http://www.math.ualberta.ca/~ashander/

I am interested in predicting effects of increased climate variability on the abundance and spatial population structure of coastal marine fishes. My doctoral research may take the form of incorporating spatially-explicit demographic traits, dispersal capabilities, and selection pressures into the prediction of population connectivity patterns and range dynamics. The following are some of the general research questions I aspire to address with my work:
In what way will changes in the periodicity and magnitude of upwelling events on intra-annual to inter-decadal timescales affect the fitness of species groups with similar life histories? How will artificial selection pressures imposed by fishing interact with climate change to direct trends in life-history evolution? What trends in community composition may occur with these changing selection pressures? How will changes in timing and duration of seasonal productivity cycles affect propagule survivorship? Will spatial management goals be confounded?

I am broadly interested in how dispersal, phenotypic selection, and phenotypic plasticity influence population dynamics and local adaptation. I try to combine theoretical and empirical approaches to answer questions. The empirical systems I have worked in are marine invertebrates such as bryozoans and corals. My PhD research investigated some causes and consequences of phenotype-dependent dispersal and how differences among individuals influence population dynamics and connectivity. My postdoc research here at UC Davis will develop theory on how gene flow, selection, and plasticity influence populations and apply the theory to salmon artificial propagation programs.

Link to personal webpage: http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqsburg3/ 

I am generally interested in the ecological processes responsible for resilience in marine communities. My dissertation research focuses on how seagrasses (marine angiosperms) respond to disturbance. In particular, I am investigating how habitat modification by eelgrass (Zostera marina) and other benthic ecosystem engineers mediates resilience to environmental perturbations.

For more information about Max, see his website at https://sites.google.com/site/mcastorani/