Theresa-Anne Tatom-Naecker

Welcome! I'm a marine ecologist with expertise in quantitative modeling, biochemical diet tracers, and marine mammal field research with applications to conservation and management questions.

My main interests are the ecology of marine mammals, especially cetaceans, carrying out research that informs conservation and management efforts, and teaching about the marine environment and how we can protect it.

I received my PhD in 2026 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I was part of the Costa Lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. My research involved evaluating and applying quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) to advance diet estimation in cetaceans,  with a focus on the feeding and foraging behavior of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Sarasota Bay, Florida where I work in collaboration with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.

Please feel free to contact me by email at theresa . naecker @ gmail . com 

Find my page on the Costa Lab website here.