Kelps are large brown algae in the order Laminariales and are foundation species that form the basis of kelp forests. Present across a quarter of the world’s coastlines, kelp forests provide diverse services to coastal communities, as habitat for commercially and culturally important species, as a food source for humans...
While community ecologists have traditionally focused on local-scale processes, it has become apparent that a broader perspective, which explores the community-level ramifications of material fluxes within and between ecosystems, is necessary to effectively evaluate bottom-up influences on community structure and dynamics. In this dissertation, I employed ecosystem principles to understand...
Ocean acidification affects all organisms that incorporate calcium carbonate into their structure, including coralline algae. Coralline algae are a key component of the intertidal ecosystem on the Oregon coast which is why it is important that we understand how the potential loss of coralline algae to ocean acidification will impact...
Ocean Acidification (OA) has emerged as a major threat to marine ecosystems, particularly regarding calcifying organisms. A growing body of literature describing laboratory investigations into pH stress indicates broadly deleterious effects for calcifiers, but responses vary greatly across taxa and can be influenced by variations in other environmental characteristics. Scaling...
The multifaceted role of the environment in regulating the structure and dynamics of biological communities has long fascinated ecologists and motivated much debate and research. Now, in a time of accelerated global changes due to human impacts, the need to understand how the environment shapes communities has gained new urgency....