About the Lab

Are you a prospective student? click for advice.

In the Ecology and Conservation Lab, we conduct research on a wide variety of general topics in population and community ecology including:

• predation and food web interactions;
• life history ecology and recruitment dynamics of fishes;
• population dynamics of threatened and endangered species;
• nutrients, eutrophication, and the responses of marine organisms;
• spatial ecology of marine ecosystems.
• bycatch in fisheries.

Examples of current projects include:

• linking nutrient loading and low oxygen in North Carolina estuaries and in the Gulf of Mexico to fisheries;
• population dynamics and management of sea turtles, seabirds, and red-cockaded woodpeckers;
• source-sink population dynamics in reef fishes;
• fisheries/protected species interactions including blue crab/diamondback terrapin and leatherback sea turtles and longline fisheries;
• dynamic spatial distributions of protected species and fisheries activity.

Ph.D.

My laboratory is at Duke University Marine Lab and offers easy access to a variety of marine, estuarine and freshwater habitats. I generally look for students with strong quantitative skills who are interested in combining laboratory or field experimental ecology and modeling in their research.

Ph.D. students typically spend a year in the Triangle where they have access to graduate course offerings at Duke University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

My primary appointment is in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, but I have a secondary appointment in Biology (Duke University) and adjunct appointments in Zoology and Biomathematics (NCSU). I am also a member of the Ecology Graduate Program at Duke.

You may apply either through Ecology, School of the Environment or Biology. Once your application is reviewed either through Ecology, School of the Environment, or Biology, I will get an opportunity to review it. If it appears we can offer you a position, then I will contact you and set up an interview. If you would like to send me a copy of your application, I can review it before you turn up on the list.

CEM - Coastal Environmental Management

Thank you for your interest in the CEM program at Duke University Marine Laboratory. I typically advise 4-6 CEM students per year; you can look elsewhere on the lab webpage for topics they have studied.

CEM students often spend a year in the Triangle where they have access to graduate course offerings at Duke University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, before they move to DUML. CEMs in my lab often work on existing projects and with graduate students or post-docs in addition to me.