Ocean Systems Ecology Lab

The Ocean Systems Ecology Lab at WHOI pursues regional- and global-scale ecosystem research integrating primary production, biogeochemistry, microbial physiology, plankton ecology, food webs, ecosystem science, and fisheries. Our systems-based approach is primarily focused on mathematical and statistical modeling, utilizing tools from theoretical ecology, ocean modeling, Bayesian analysis, dynamical systems, spatial-temporal statistics, hierarchical modeling, and extreme value theory, among others. We do a combination of basic and applied work, often combining process-based models with complex ecological and environmental datasets.

Planktonic and Microbial Systems Ecology

Marine plankton ("plankton" = drifting) span roughly five orders of magnitude in size (diameter), contain multiple trophic levels, turn over on daily timescales, and are dispersed by complex fluid dynamical processes. This complex system forms the base of the marine food web, drives the global carbon cycle, and impacts earth's climate. We work on several aspects of plankton and microbial ecology, including primary production modeling, eco-physiological modeling of phytoplankton, and trophic food web analysis.

Carbon Export and Biogeochemical Cycling

Biogeochemistry describes the physical and chemical interactions with marine ecosystems that determine the fluxes and distribution of carbon, nitrogen, and other critical elemental resources in the environment. Our work has focused on models of carbon export, organic matter remineralization at depth, and nutrient re-supply processes to the surface ocean. We have a particular interest in how climate processes interact with biogeochemistry and thereby modulate the productivity of marine ecosystems.

Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation

Marine fisheries represent one of the most far-reaching uses of our natural resources, yet stocks have been impacted in recent decades by overfishing, habitat destruction, and the accelerating pace of climate change. Our work in this area includes regional and global analysis of recruitment and growth variability, probabilistic modeling of recovery trajectories for depleted stocks, development of statistical stock assessment and decision-theoretic methods, and climate impact modeling using coupled climate models.

Theoretical Ecology and Dynamical Systems

The group maintains a broad interest in the general structure and dynamics of marine populations and ecosystems, touching on all our science themes listed above. Our theoretical work has investigated the dynamics of community matrix models and the role of top down control, ecosystem carbon and energy balances, and the trophic structure of marine ecosystems across timescales.

Ecological and Environmental Statistics

We are generally interested in applied statistics methodology within the ecological and environmental sciences. An ongoing focus is on estimation methods to formally integrate dynamical models and time series datasets. Much of our work makes use of Bayesian methods, including probabilistic programming languages such as Stan and PyMC. Our statistical interests also extend beyond applications in our core marine research areas, including broad multidisciplinary collaborations.