The Division of Biological Oceanography offers a broadrange of exciting research opportunities in diverse marine habitats and ecosystems around the globe, from tropical to polar oceans and from the air-sea interface to the deep-ocean floor. Upper water-column programs include studies of primary productivity and bio-optics, color satellite imagery, plant pigments as tracers of biogeochemical processes, microbial food-web interactions, phytoplankton and zooplankton community structure, and the roles of biota in vertical transport andremineralization of particulate and dissolved organic matter. Mid-water column studies focus on the community ecology and dynamics ofmeso-pelagic shrimp, squid and small fishes unique to oceanic island systems. Benthic research programs involve coral reef ecology and evolution, effects of environmental disturbances on deep-sea community dynamics and recruitment, chemical cycling, burial, and bioturbation in the sediments, and the microbial ecology of tube-building animals and bioturbation in the sediments, and the microbial ecology of tube-building animals and hydrothermal vent systems. Both water-column and benthic investigators are actively involved in high-profile Global Change programs in the Pacific - including coastal margin, open ocean, and equatorial upwelling studies.
Divisional programs emphasize basic research, but many are relevant to applied problems and societal concerns such as the fate of "green-house" gases, ecological impacts of ozone depletion and deep-seamining, mechanisms of pollutant transport and cycling, and fisheries recruitment. The interdisciplinary nature of these and other problems fosters strong collaborative interactions between Division biologists and geochemists and physicists in the Department and at other institutions.
Drazen, Jeffrey C., PhD (University of California at San Diego, Scripps Inst. of Oceanography), Professor, Dept. of Oceanography. Physiological ecology of deep-sea fishes, energetic strategies, trophodynamics.
Grigg, Richard W. , PhD (University of California at San Diego, Scripps Inst. of Oceanography), Researcher, Dept. of Oceanography. Coral reef ecology, paleoecology, fisheries management.Huntley, Mark, Ph.D. (Dalhousie University), Professor. Global climate change – impact, adaptation and mitigation, bio-renewable fuels, large-scale photobioreactor technology for production of photosynthetic microbes, life histories, ecology, physiology and cultivation of zooplankton, synoptic mapping and remote sensing of zooplankton.
Johnson, Zackary I., PhD (Duke University), Assistant Professor, Dept. of Oceanography. Marine microbial ecology, molecular ecology of phototrophs, microbial contributions to biogeochemical cycles.
Karl, David M. , PhD (University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Professor, Dept. of Oceanography.McMurtry, Gary, Ph.D. (University of Hawaii at Manoa), Associate Professor. Uranium-Series Disequilibrium, marine mineral formation and resources, submarine hydrothermal systems, magmatic volatiles, submarine monitoring technology.
Smith, Craig R. , PhD (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD), Professor, Dept. of Oceanography. Seafloor ecology and oceanography including processes of disturbance, recruitment, and succession, bioturbation, carbon flux, deposit feeding, reducing habitats, sediment geochemistry, and bentho-pelagic coupling, anthropogenic impacts on the ocean.
Steward, Grieg F. , PhD (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD), Assistant Professor, Dept. of Oceanography. Marine microbial ecology, molecular ecology of viruses and bacteria, microbial contributions to biogeochemical cycles.Wang, Guangyi, Ph.D. (University of California at Davis), Associate Professor. Marine fungal diversity and systematics, sponge microbial diversity and ecology, reef microbial chemical ecology, applied microbiological oceanography, marine biotechnology.
Young, Richard E. , PhD (University of Miami, Institute of Marine Sciences), Professor, Dept. of Oceanography. Evolution, systematics and functional morphology of cephalopods, and the roles cephalopods play in present and past oceanic communities.
"Anthropogenic and natural stresses on coral reefs in Hawaii: A multi-decadal synthesis of impact and recovery." Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative, NOAA. (R. Grigg, S. Dollar, R. Brock)
"Bentho-pelagic coupling on the West Antarctic Peninsula shelf: the impact and fate of bloom material at the seafloor." NSF-DPP (Craig R. Smith)
"Biocomplexity: Collaborative Research: Oceanic N2 Fixation and Global Climate." NSF (D. M. Karl; A. F. Michaels and D. Capone, USC, lead P.I.s)
"Collaborative research: Radiometric dating of whale bones a tool for study of succession and persistence of whale fall chemoautotrophic assemblages." NSF-OCE (Craig R. Smith)
"Continuing assessment of the impact of invading mangroves on Hawaiian coastal ecosystems." Hawaii Sea Grant College Program. (Craig R. Smith)
"Controls on carbon isotopic fractionation in Emiliania huxleyi." NSF (E.A. Laws, R.R. Bidigare and B. Popp)
"Controls on the Variability of Phytoplankton Biomass and Productivity in the North Pacific Central Gyre." NASA (R.R. Bidigare).
"Coupled Intensification of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles in the Subtropical North Pacific Ocean." NSF (D. M. Karl)
"Development of a coupled global circulation/adaptive food web model to explain carbon cycling in the ocean." NSF (E.A. Laws)
"LTER: An Ice-dominated Environment." NSF (D. Karl; R. Smith, UCSB, lead P.I.)
"Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center." NSF (E.A. Laws and R.R. Bidigare).
"Project Deep Reef." Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council (R. Grigg)
"Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFeX): Mesoscale Iron Fertilization Effects on Plankton Community Structure, Phytoplankton Growth and Zooplankton
Grazing." NSF (M.R. Landry and R.R. Bidigare)
"Special Creativity Extension: The Hawaii Ocean Time-series Program: JGOFS Component." NSF (D. M. Karl, R. R. Bidigare, J. E. Dore and M. R. Landry)
"Succession and seep affinities of large-whale, kelp, and wood fall communities on the California slope." NOAA-NURC Alaska (Craig R. Smith)
"Sustainability of the black coral fishery in Hawaii and impacts on bottom fish habitat." Sea Grant (R. Grigg)