BEST-BSIERP Scientists: L

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Ben Laurel

NOAA-Alaska Fisheries Science Center

ben. laurel@noaa. gov | Ben Laurel is a Research Fisheries Biologist in the Fisheries Behavioral Ecology Program at the NOAA-Alaska Fisheries Science Center laboratory at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, OR. His interests include the behavioral and physiological ecology of larvae and juvenile fish species in coldwater marine systems. He is particularly interested in the role that behavior and physiology drive patterns of habitat use, survival and dispersal during these early life stages. He uses a combination of experimental and field approaches in his research.

Dr. Laurel received his MSc (1998) and PhD (2003) from Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He then conducted postdoctoral work with DFO-Canada and NOAA Fisheries prior to his NOAA appointment at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, OR.

Bob Lauth

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service

bob. lauth@noaa. gov

Evelyn Lessard

University of Washington

elessard@u. washington. edu | I am an Associate Professor in the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington. I did my undergraduate studies at Middlebury College, where an inspiring professor first sparked my interest in the tiniest marine organisms. I earned my MS in Microbiology and PhD in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, where I studied the ecology of heterotrophic dinoflagellates, an important group of protist grazers. I was a Research Scientist at the University of Maryland Horn Point Environmental Laboratories prior to the coming to the University of Washington.

My research focus is on the roles of microzooplankton as trophic intermediaries between primary producers and higher trophic levels. I've studied the grazing impact of heterotrophic protists on phytoplankton, including harmful species, and their importance as food for upper trophic level organisms in diverse ecosystems including the Sargasso Sea, Antarctica, Gulf of Alaska, the Bering Sea and most recently studying in the upwelling coastal region off the WA and OR coasts. I have a strong interest in effectively representing and parameterizing lower trophic level interactions and rate processes in ecosystem models.

In the BEST-BSIERP program, I am working with colleague Rodger Harvey to measure feeding rates, and effects of prey type (heterotrophic and phototrophic protists, zooplankton) and nutritional quality (lipids) on growth rates of krill under varying environmental conditions. Krill are critical prey for top predators in the Bering Sea, and therefore it is important to gain a better understanding the 'bottom up' factors which may affect their responses to climate-driven changes in the environment.

Michael Lomas

Bermuda Biological Station

mlomas@bbsr. edu | Dr. Lomas received his PhD in biological oceanography in 1999 from the University of Maryland, where he studied the nitrogen metabolism of marine phytoplankton in response to variable light, and therefore cellular energy, environments. He was a postdoctoral scholar at Horn Point Laboratory in the Harmful Algal Research Group before joining BBSR's Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) team in 2001. His primary interest is studying the ecological linkages between phytoplankton functional diversity and nutrient biogeochemical cycling.

Dr. Lomas is currently involved in several projects, including: examining long-term patterns in phytoplankton diversity at BATS and relationships to ocean carbon cycling; the role of winter mixing on altering phytoplankton community structure and enhancing biologically mediated carbon export; and utilization of dissolved organic phosphorus substrates by phytoplankton taxonomic groups. He is an adjunct faculty of the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, where he teaches a core course in biological oceanography as part of the Beaufort-to-Bermuda Program.