Quantitative Ecology - Data Science - SustainabilityThis website is not being updated regularly. Please see the new lab website at Quantitative Marine Ecology Lab.
I am a quantitative marine ecologist who uses mathematical and statistical tools, coupled with experiments and field observations, to answer questions in ecology, conservation science, sustainability, and ecosystem management. Most of my work is focused on marine systems, especially fisheries and spatial planning. I am a new Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. Prior to joining UNH, I was a research associate at the University of Vermont with the QuEST program, a NSF-funded PhD traineeship focused on quantitative skills, interdisciplinary work, as well as diversity and inclusion.
I currently conduct research on assessing the effectiveness of protected area networks, improving species monitoring programs, and modeling socio-ecological systems in the context of fisheries. My work centers on how environmental variability, in particular rare events (e.g., hurricanes, COVID-19 pandemic), affects ecosystems and those that depend on them. My current work is funded through a NSF grant focused on interdisiplinary approaches to study coupled natural-human systems with Madagascar fisheries as a case study:
(CO-PIs) Baker-Medard Merrill, White Easton R., and Elizabeth Fairchild. Socio-Ecological Feedbacks of Marine Protected Areas: Dynamics of Small-Scale Fishing Communities and Inshore Marine Ecosystems. National Science Foundation CNH2: Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems. $602,320. 2019-2024.