Effinger, Anna Ling
We investigated phytoplankton growth and micro- and mesozooplankton grazing patterns in the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) during summer 2021. Two water parcels, followed over a duration of 4-5 days using satellite-tracked drogued drifter for quasi- Lagrangian experimental cycles were investigated for inshore and offshore differences. Phytoplan...
Reardon, Kaitlyn Nahye
Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUSs) are sites of enhanced productivity and globally significant fisheries. Instabilities of the upwelling front lead to intense mesoscale features that stir hydrographic and biogeochemical gradients and transport nutrients and organic carbon offshore into oligotrophic waters. These mesoscale features interact,...
Sullivan, Megan Ruth
Phytoplankton play a critical role in the biological carbon pump by absorbing carbon dioxide at the ocean's surface and exporting it to the deep ocean. This work examines the links between phytoplankton physiology and global carbon export, combining mechanistic modeling, satellite remote sensing, and biogeochemical inverse modeling. First, I presen...
Iglesias, Ilysa
The deep-pelagic ocean represents one of the largest biomes, and is home to adiverse assemblage of organisms, whose collective vertical movements represent the greatest migration on earth. Deep-pelagic environments and denizens are often defined by their distance and distinctness from surface ecosystems. However, in this dissertation, I explore how...
Snyder, Eric R
The oceans contain a cacophony of sounds from biological, geological, meteorological, and anthropogenic sources. As computational power and data storage capabilities have increased, long-term passive acoustic recordings have been increasingly employed to study the oceans. Multiple hydrophones can be deployed in a site or region to gain more informa...
Hsiao, Valerie
Mangroves offer many important ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, serving as nursery grounds to many organisms, and acting as barriers where land and sea converge. Mangroves exhibit environmental flexibility and resilience and frequently occur in nutrient-limited systems. Despite existing research on mangrove microbiomes, the effect...
Rabines, Ariel
This thesis investigates novel methodologies for monitoring microbial communities in various marine and commercial algal environments, with a focus on enhancing data quality, speed, and accessibility for microbiome analysis. Chapter 1 examines the use of the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) for autonomous, high-frequency sampling of microbial c...
Guraieb Casis, Michelle
The deep ocean, exceeding 200 meters in depth, represents Earth's largest habitable space, yet it remains its least explored region. This study focuses on the Southern California Borderland (SCB), an area characterized by uneven and heterogeneous topography; and varying depths, temperatures, and oxygen concentrations. Due to its variability, this e...
Saberski, Erik
Nature is hard to predict. Rules and relationships you discover about a system today may be totally different tomorrow. These relationships do not change randomly over time; rather, they change as the state of the system evolves. In a deterministic view of the world, similar states lead to similar outcomes. In this thesis, I leverage this principle...
McCarthy, Orion Stefan
Coral reefs hold immense ecologic, economic, and social value, yet these important ecosystems face an existential threat from global climate change. Coral reef conservation is thus an urgent international priority, yet it can be challenging to design and implement effective conservation measures due to the innate complexity of coral reef ecosystems...