火,斯宾塞
斯宾塞 火
Associate Professor | College of Engineering and Science - Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences
Contact 信息
个人概述
My reSearch program combines an interest in the very smallest and the very largest organisms in the sea (and occasionally a few in between). From single-celled marine algae (phytoplankton) to shellfish, 有鳍鱼, 海龟, humans and marine mammals such as baleen whales, the interactions between these organism can tell us much about the status of our oceans' health. My current reSearch focuses on the impacts of harmful algal blooms and their toxins on marine food webs and the health of sentinel organisms such as marine mammals. To carry out this work, my students and I focus on 3 core areas:
- Developing and using molecular detection methods to investigate how natural contaminants move through marine food webs,
- Drawing on field experience with small cetaceans and pinnipeds, as well as knowledge of field survey methods, to study marine mammal health and behavior in the wild,
- Combining a knowledge of large-scale oceanographic processes with laboratory and field methods to study changing marine ecosystems and their links to wildlife and human health.
访问 the 火 Lab Website here
Educational Background
Ph.D., Ocean Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz (2007)
M.S., Marine Science, University of California Santa Cruz (2002)
B.S., Zoology, Brigham Young University (2000)
研究
研究 & 项目利益
海洋巨型动物
Marine megafauna (large, ocean-dwelling animals) are often long-lived, top-level predators that face a number of threats from natural and man-made sources. Because of their ability to concentrate contaminants through bioaccumulation and their increasing exposure to a wide variety of health threats, they are frequently threatened or endangered in the wild. 出于这些原因, they serve an important role as "sentinel species" that act as barometers of ocean health and demonstrate the link between ocean and human health.
HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS (HABs)
One major health threat these animals face is exposure to toxins produced by naturally-occurring blooms of marine algae (phytoplankton). These toxic blooms can have devastating effects on marine mammals, seabirds and 海龟, resulting in mass mortalities with deaths numbering in the hundreds. My reSearch seeks to understand the effects of these toxins on marine megafauna that live where harmful algal blooms occur, both at the population level and the individual level. These efforts are critical in providing natural resource managers and practitioners of wildlife medicine the knowledge needed to mitigate and respond to threats to these protected marine species.