Author: Paul Barber

Eli Catalan, IoES PhD student in the Barber Lab is awarded a Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center Natural Resources Workforce Development (NRWD) Fellowship focused on  providing graduate students with opportunities for training and practice in developing use-inspired and actionable science to inform natural resource management decisions. More information on this fellowship can be found HERE

Austin Bentacourt, TDP alumnus and Barber lab master student (soon to be PhD student) is awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue her PhD studying population genomics of of Dungeness crab.

Sam Degregori is awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology! He’ll be studying the evolution of vertebrate gut Microbiomes. Congrats Sam!

Congratulations to the 2021 cohort of The Diversity Project who presented their work at the 2022 Ocean Sciences Meeting. Presentations included:

Physical Disturbance to Foundational Macroalgal Communities on Coral Reefs Causes Rapid Changes in Use by Herbivorous Fish Communities

Trait-Based Ecology Detects Changes in Macroalgal Community Traits Following Disturbance Events

Vertical Expansion of Turbinaria ornata, an Alternative Stable State Usually Restricted to Shallow Zones of Coral Reefs, is Not Limited by Nutrients or Herbivory on Juvenile Thalli.

Today, minutes before the stroke of midnight, Kelcie Chiquillo filed her PhD thesis “Understanding the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of tropical seagrasses and the factors driving habitat distribution”. Congratulations Dr. Chiquillo. Kelcie’s next step? An NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at FIU!

Paul Barber and Peggy Fong are named Naturalists of the Year for their work on The Diversity Project, advancing diversity in marine science. They delivered a keynote address at the 2021 WSN meeting.

Barber Lab undergraduate Keira Monuki published her undergraduate thesis today, entitled  “eDNA captures depth partitioning in a kelp forest ecosystem”

Congratulations Keira! Keira is now a PhD student with Eric Sanford at UC Davis.

 

In Fall 2021, John Amiel Flores (UC Davis) and Onny Marwayana (Indonesian Institute of Sciences) joined the Barber Lab as PhD students. John Amiel previously worked with Rachel Bay at UC Davis. Onny is returning for his second tour of duty, having completed his Masters in 2018. Welcome John Amiel, and welcome back, Onny!

Barber Lab PhD Student, Zack Gold, published the paper “Improving metabarcoding taxonomic assignment: A case study of fishes in a large marine ecosystem” This paper introduces FishCARD, a metabarcoding reference database specific to fishes in California coastal waters. This is a major advance in support of eDNA research in California. 

After two years hiatus due to a sabbatical and COVID-19, The Diversity Project resumed for summer of 2021, taking a group of amazing students to Moorea, French Polynesia. It’s great to be back! It wasn’t easy getting here by WE. ARE. HERE. Thanks to everyone who made this happen!