My research uses quantitative methods to provide solutions for marine conservation problems. My particular interests include population resilience and species recovery, evaluation of population dynamics that result from individual-based ecology, and integration of tools and methods to understand species ecology, distributions, and response to management strategies. I prefer to focus on conservation success stories and find ways to apply them to find solutions for communities and species still at risk. I am motivated more by interesting conservation problems, rather than taxa or community type. My Ph.D. research specifically focused on models to improve how green sea turtles, an US ESA threatened species, are monitored to increase the accuracy of population assessments. My future research foci include extending my Monitoring Strategy Evaluation tool (MoSE) to include spatial dynamics, and to apply the modeling framework to other species, particularly those with limited detection or difficulty in effective monitoring. Overall, I plan to evaluate spatio-temporal variability in life history traits of recovering marine species, and to continue developing tools for prospective evaluation of marine spatial planning.

Projects

Quantitative Tools for Monitoring Strategy Evaluation and Assessment of Sea Turtle Populations

 Piloting the use of stereo-video cameras to develop an in-water index of juvenile sea turtle size distributions in the northern Gulf of Mexico

Investigating Design Improvement to Sea Turtle Tracking Devices

 Characteristics of temperate rocky reefs with high fish biomass

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Benthic Biodiversity in the California Current

Taking Stock of Oregon’s nearshore fisheries: development of simple assessment tools for better
Management