Predatory lionfishes (Pterois volitans and P. miles) were introduced to Florida waters during the mid to late 1980s, and eventually established self-sustaining breeding populations in the tropical western Atlantic. These invasive species are now widespread along the southeastern seaboard of the United States, across the Caribbean Sea, and in the...
Understanding the processes that influence the composition of animal communities is a central goal in ecology. Interactions between established residents and colonizing juveniles that affect the subsequent survival of juveniles may influence community composition. In a series of experiments on coral reef fish communities in the Bahamas and Australia, I...
Many marine fish populations are severely declining due to over-fishing, loss of both juvenile and adult habitats, and accelerating environmental degradation. Fisheries management and the implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs) and other conservation tools are currently hindered by large gaps in knowledge about larval dispersal and its subsequent effects...
Many species have complex life cycles in which a dispersive larval stage is
followed by a relatively sedentary adult stage. For such species, reproductive output
is often high and large variation in survivorship throughout early life-history phases
(eggs and larvae) can lead to dramatic fluctuations in recruitment which may in...
Studies of geographic variation are central to understanding ecological and evolutionary processes. Geographic variation in the shell of the black abalone (Halioth cracherodii), a marine intertidal gastropod, involves both
clinal and local variation along the eastern Pacific coast in the number and size of tremata (=respiratory pores) on the shell....
Predators are fundamentally important for regulating and driving prey population dynamics as well as structuring ecological communities. Over-exploitation of marine resources has caused dramatic depletions of predatory fish species and shifts in marine community composition, with attendant declines in productivity and diversity of marine ecosystems. Despite the important ramifications of...
There is increasing awareness that human activities are altering the ways that natural systems operate and that local shifts in species composition and abundance can lead to abrupt and irreversible global change. Therefore, understanding the processes that buffer biological communities from critical shifts and how our actions affect natural stabilizing...
The lionfish (Pterois volitans) is a successful invasive predator with large impacts on native fish populations in the western Atlantic. Lionfish predation may affect competition between prey species so it is important to understand whether lionfish display preferences between prey species. I investigated lionfish and native graysby grouper prey preference...
he Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is widely known as one of the best-managed marine protected areas in the world. The park is divided into different management zones, the most prevalent of which are marine national park zones, which are designated as no-take, and conservation zones in which some regulated...
Because many coral-reef fishes are observable in situ, are amenable to transplantation, have small home ranges and short generation times, they provide a excellent system to investigate many topics within general ecology, fisheries biology, and conservation biology. The primary goal of this dissertation was to use the coral-reef fishes system...