Marco Corrales Ugalde, PhD (2024-) Postdoctoral Scholar ([email protected])
Marco has a long-standing interest in determining how plankton traits (such as body size and feeding behavior) relate to energy and nutrient flow through marine ecosystems. To this end, he obtained his PhD in Marine Biology studying the interactions between jellyfish and their prey across multiple scales (from individual interactions to estimates of jellyfish feeding rates in the California Current). During his first postdoc with NOAA’s Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, he co-led the development of a plankton size database that standardizes plankton size estimates from multiple imaging systems. His current goal is to use plankton size estimates from ISIIS to understand how the processes that control primary production in the California Current determine energy transfer efficiency and productivity of planktonic animals.
Meredith Anderson (2024-) M.S. student ([email protected])
Meredith is joining the lab from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Marine Sciences and a minor in Spanish. During her time at UF, she has worked on various research projects, from the trophic ecology of marine benthic environments to the impacts of ocean acidification and warming on larval krill. Meredith will focus her Master's research on the temporal and spatial distributions of Dungeness crab larvae, specifically the zoeal stage, in the Northern California Current region.
Luke Bobay (2021-) PhD Candidate ([email protected])
Luke is studying the potential effects of climate change on northern anchovy recruitment. He is using fine-scale data collected off the Pacific Northwest using ISIIS and MOCNESS, as well as by partners at NOAA, to model relationships among physical ocean conditions, plankton abundance and community structure, and larval northern anchovy abundance, size-at-hatch, and growth. Using these modeled relationships and outputs of ocean biogeochemical models, he is relating spatially explicit hindcasts of larval anchovy abundance, size-at-hatch, and growth for the northern stock of northern anchovy to recent adult abundance. Through this research, Luke hopes to improve understanding of how climate change is influencing fish populations to aid conservation and ecosystem management. Luke earned his BS at Ohio State University. His past research has explored larval yellow perch foraging in Lake Erie, growth of Snake River spring/summer run juvenile Chinook salmon, and visual acuity of Lake Erie sportfish.
Elena Conser (2021- ) PhD Candidate ([email protected])
Elena joined the lab after completing her B.S. at the University of Miami. She is studying how seasonal hypoxia affects the growth, diet, and survival of larval and juvenile flatfishes in the Northern California Current region.
Talia Davis (2023-) M.S. student ([email protected])
Talia earned her B.S. in Fisheries and Ocean Sciences from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her M.S. research involves deploying the newly designed Mini-ISIIS in a range of freshwater ponds and training the established deep learning pipeline to classify freshwater planktonic organisms to resolve the structure and dynamics of plankton communities among ponds at different latitudes with varying hydroperiods and seasonal signals.
Cameron Royer (2022-) PhD Student ([email protected])
Cameron earned his B.S. with a focus in Marine Biology and a minor in Chemistry from Oregon State University. At OSU, he is studying the relationship between oceanographic conditions and the recruitment patterns and early life history traits of young rockfishes in the Northern California Current. He is also using a newly designed mini version of ISIIS to image plankton within and outside of nearshore kelp forests to better understand the environments encountered by settling fishes. Cameron is also pursuing a certificate in college and university teaching (GCCUT) with the goal of becoming a college instructor.
Jami Ivory (2017-) Faculty Research Assistant ([email protected])
Jami received her B.S. in Biology from Humboldt State University and her M.S. in Marine Science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. As a graduate student in Deborah Steinberg’s lab, her thesis work focused on determining the temporal variability in diel, seasonal, and interannual patterns in mesozooplankton abundance as part of the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study. After completing her M.S., Jami conducted research at sea with Cornell University, University of Rhode Island, and Sea Education Association onboard research vessels and tall ships. Currently as the Plankton Lab Manager, Jami organizes equipment and supplies for our research cruises, and processes ichthyoplankton samples from the MEZCAL project. Jami loves fieldwork and is thrilled to be living on the Oregon coast and exploring the exciting field of larval fishes!
Nick Howard (2023 -) Faculty Research Assistant ([email protected])
Nick joined the lab after receiving his B.S. in Marine Biology from Oregon State University. He developed an interest in the plankton community after he spent time volunteering with the lab at sea. His current focus is processing ichthyoplankton samples from the SPECTRA cruises and assisting with fieldwork for the URoL freshwater project.