Marine Ecology

Marine Plant Physiology

Marine plant physiology informs ocean health and marine conservation: seaweed, cordgrass, and seagrass physiology are sensitive indicators of environmental stress. Ecosystem function depends on marine species diversity and genetic diversity. BML has one of very few labs equipped for marine macrophyte physiological studies. The Williams lab performs physiological research on marine macrophytes (seagrass, cordgrass, seaweeds) to investigate coastal marine plant response to stress.

NSF Supported Non-Indigenous/Invasive Species and Pathogen Facility

The Bodega Marine Laboratory non-indigenous/pathogen facility and effluent treatment system was established in 2014 and supports non-indigenous and invasive species research. The facility enables scientists and students the ability to investigate introduced/invasive species as well as pathogens that are the basis for emerging diseases and changing biodiversity.

For more information about these facilities, please contact BML.

 

Climate Change and Biological Invasions

Increasingly, Ted Grosholz's research is addressing the interaction between climate change and biological invasions. As the result of participation in an NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis) working group on climate change and invasive species, he has continued his collaborative work on synthetic analyses of climate change impacts on the invasion process that began with participation in an NCEAS working group on climate change and invasive species.

Invasive Species

Marine invasive species are species introduced by human activities to new habitats where the species are not native. Marine invasive species are causing more and more costly economic problems, such as fouling the hulls of boats, which slows the vessels and increases the fuel costs. BML researchers continue to be among the top in the field of marine invasive species.

Ecomechanics

Research conducted in Brian Gaylord's laboratory explores how organisms interface with physical attributes of their environments, and how such interactions influence population pattern.

Effects of turbulence on larval settlement

Biodiversity and Community Ecology

Biodiversity is, simply, the variety of life on Earth, and can be characterized at various levels from genes, to species and ecosystems. Understanding the causes of patterns of the diversity of life on Earth and the functional consequences of natural and human-caused variation in that diversity are fundamental goals of ecology and a focus of active research at BML. These studies are all the more pressing given the impact that human activities have on biodiversity.

Ecological Climate Change Studies

Changing climates inevitably raise the pervasive ecological and evolutionary question of whether populations are capable of persisting, either through dispersal, plasticity, or shifts in the genetic composition of populations. Bodega Marine Laboratory’s strategic location at the center of many ranges of intertidal invertebrates, along with its superb culturing facilities and access to rocky shores, makes it an ideal place to test hypotheses about the responses of marine organisms to changing climates.