Who we are
Meet the team
Brian Gaylord
Professor, Department of Evolution and Ecology, and Bodega Marine Laboratory
Chair, Graduate Group in Ecology
University of California, Davis
bpgaylord (at) ucdavis.edu
(707) 875-1940
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Nick Burnett
Postdoctoral Researcher
I am a biologist who uses techniques from materials science and functional morphology to understand how organisms grow, survive, and thrive in challenging fluid flow conditions, such as wind and waves. As part of this focus, I want to know how the biomechanical properties of organisms change in response to environmental stressors, and how they shape ecological interactions. I examined these topics during my doctoral research using the wave-swept kelp Egregia menziesii as a model system. For my first postdoctoral position, I transitioned from marine to terrestrial habitats to pursue these questions in wind-dominated systems, using flying insects as models. Now at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, I am back to marine systems again, investigating the material and morphological traits that allow kelps and other organisms to be successful in wave-swept habitats.
Dr. Sara Hamilton
Postdoctoral Researcher
I am a postdoctoral researcher working with the Bodega Ocean Acidification Group at Bodega Marine Lab. I earned my PhD studying kelp forest ecology and conservation under Drs. Kristen Grorud-Colvert and Bruce Menge at Oregon State University. In college, I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and Gender Studies from Bowdoin College in Maine. I currently study patterns of oceanographic change in the California Current and socio-ecological vulnerability to this change. Over my career, I hope to use my scientific skills to help manifest equitable and sustainable ocean resource use. I currently live in Corvallis, Oregon, on the occupied lands of the Kalapuya peoples, whose descendants are often enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. I spend my non-science time adoring my rescue dog D.B. Cooper.
Graduate Students
Alisha Saley
Ph.D. Student
I am broadly interested in how future chemical conditions in seawater will disrupt and/or modulate ecological processing in nearshore environments. To understand this, I am examining how ocean acidification, a reduction of ocean pH resulting from an increase in atmospheric CO2 gas, disrupts predator-prey dynamics in rocky intertidal habitats. In addition, many of the nearshore habitats that we study as marine scientists are at least infrequently impacted by riverine input, and thereby the carbon and alkalinity that are transported and cycled within it. Therefore, I am investigating in the current impact of open-coast freshwater sources (and their associated carbon chemistry) to nearshore habitats and calcifying organisms so as to better understand the role of these systems in the future.
Ashley Smart
Ph.D. Student
I spent most of my life fearful of the unknown vastness that is the oceans; today, that unknowingness is the driving force behind my pursuit to study how human-driven climate change impacts our oceans. Broadly, my research addresses the following questions: (1) Current-day and future impacts of climate change in marine ecosystems, (2) Response of organisms to individual stressors and multiple stressors, (3) Deriving a mechanistic understanding of the impacts of stressors across multiple scales in an individual organism, (4) Scaling up from individual to ecosystem. Currently, I am using the model organism Aplysia californica to explore the relationship between behavior and neurophysiology under ocean acidification.
Marlynn Rollins
Ph.D. Student
I am interested in how climate change affects marine ecosystems, in particular how these changes influence interspecific interactions.
Tallulah Winquist
Ph.D. Student, and San Diego State University Joint-doctoral program
Broadly speaking, I am interested in how kelp forest ecosystem dynamics are impacted by climate change. More specifically I am investigating how kelp reproduction, connectivity, distributional changes, and community structure are impacted by temperature stress.
Lily McIntire
Ph.D. Student, and San Diego State University Joint-doctoral program
I am interested in understanding how intertidal invertebrates interact with their thermal environment. To answer my questions, I am studying how mobility affects how animals behaviorally thermoregulate and cope with elevated temperatures. By comparing the thermoregulatory behavior of intertidal crabs and snails in the field and combining that with their physiological responses to elevated temperatures in the lab, I hope to quantify how mobility could buffer or exacerbate the effects of climate change on intertidal organisms.
Manny Delgado
Junior Specialist
I work with the Gaylord Lab and the Bodega Ocean Acidification Research Group, where I facilitate scientific advances and efficient operations of multiple investigatory teams. In addition to being eager and excited to study marine fauna and oceanography along my native west coast, I'm interested in ecological community dynamics, evolution, molecular biology, as well as genomics and its emergent role in conservation given novel hardships brought about by global climate change.
Gaylord lab alumni
Former postdoctoral researchers
Dr. Aurora Ricart. Current position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.
Dr. Emily Rivest. Current position: Assistant Professor, Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Dr. Kristy Kroeker. Current position: Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Dr. Dan Swezey. Current position: Lead Scientist, The Cultured Abalone.
Dr. Seth Miller. Current position: Professor, Anne Arundel Community College, and Lecturer, University of Maryland.
Dr. Michele LaVigne. Current position: Associate Professor, Bowdoin College.
Dr. Matt Ferner. Current position: Research Coordinator, San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Former Ph.D. students
Dr. Kerry Nickols. Current position: Associate Professor, California State University Northridge.
Dr. Annaliese Hettinger. Current position: Social Worker and Counselor, West Sonoma County Health Centers and Teen Clinic.
Dr. Laura Jurgens. Current position: Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, Galveston.
Dr. Brittany Jellison. Current position: Assistant Professor, University of New Hampshire.
Dr. Gabriel Ng. Current position: Environmental Scientist, California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Dr. Kristina Barclay, co-mentored visiting graduate student from U. Alberta. Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Calgary.
Dr. Scotty Gabara, co-mentored UCD/San Diego State joint doctoral student.
Dr. Kristen Elsmore. Current position: Environmental Scientist, California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Dr. Aaron Ninokawa. Current position: National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Washington.
Former scientific staff and undergraduate mentees
Sarah Merolla, Jr. Specialist.
Victoria Hickman, post-baccalaureate researcher. Current position: Ph.D. student, Stanford Univeristy.
Shelby Bacus, undergraduate researcher. Current position: M.S. student, University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Jessica Hosfelt, Jr. Specialist. Current position: Environmental consultant.
Priya Shukla, undergraduate researcher. Current position: Ph.D. student, University of California, Davis.
Kelly Laughlin, Jr. Specialist.
Beth Lenz, Jr. Specialist. Current position: Knauss Fellow.
Kirk Sato, Jr. Specialist. Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Washington.
Megan Young, Jr. Specialist.
Lisa Jacobs, Jr. Specialist.
Heather Page, NSF-sponsored REU student. Current position: Ph.D. student, Scripps Institute of Oceanography
Stephanie Ho, NSF-sponsored REU student
Rachael Dickey, NSF-sponsored REU student.
Matt Petty, NSF-sponsored REU student.