I study how environmental variation impacts marine animals and communities and how our understanding of ecology is formed by the measurments we take.
I research organismal spatial ecology; specifically how animals move within their environments and why communities are where they are. I use a computational and quantitative ecology toolbox to connect locational data to large-scale environmental data sets and work with collaborative research partners across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems.
My postdoctoral research focuses on substrate mobility as a disturbance in marine systems. For soft-sediment communities, such as sandy beaches, the interaction between waves and currents and sediment disturbance is well understood. This allows us to measure sediment mobility and to create detailed predictions for marine ecosystems. Currently there are no measurements analogous to sediment mobility in marine hard rock habitats. My research will investigate a potential measurement system which connects the forces of waves and currents to the resulting erosion of hard rock substrates and will test and evaluate how these disturbance patterns govern the distribution of communities themselves. This project is currently recruiting undergraduate researchers who will (1) gain field and data analysis experience, (2) obtain professional mentoring, and (3) expand their professional network.
*If interested please look at the CSUMB REU program and the NOAA CCME program.
I practice science as a creative endeavor.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. - Albert Einstein
PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Science, 2020
Washington State University
MSc Applied Marine and Watershed Science, 2015
California State University Monterey Bay
BA in Biology, 2010
University of Oregon
National Science Foundation fellowship studying how to measure substrate mobility in hard rock communities and whether or not substrate mobility acts as a characteristic disturbance within those communities.
This project stems from an idea published in Cramer and Katz 2020.
Modelled spawning movements of Green Sturgeon within the Sacramento River and the shade component of the FHAST model.
Responsibilities include: