The I.C.E. research team focuses on the ecology, physiology, and genetics of benthic marine populations, specifically ecosystems of kelps and seagrasses, and their interactions with other benthic organisms.  Our team is interested in understanding the response of communities at their distributional limits to disturbances such as El Nino conditions, global climate change, hurricanes, and human induced fishing pressures. 

     At the present time, our team is studying many aspects of the giant kelp ecosystem in Baja California, Mexico, including the distance that spores and larvae of these populations can travel and the effect of genetic isolation of marine algae and seagrass populations on their ecophysiology and demography.  We are also exploring the interactions between urchins, abalones, lobster, and kelps in intertidal and subtidal zones; the effects of El Nino conditions on kelp forest communities; and the biological-physical coupling of currents, slicks, internal waves, and swells with propagule distribution, settlement, and recruitment into benthic populations. 

     Our research employs methodologies in an interdisciplinary manner from fields such as biogeography, rocky shore ecology, experimental ecology, molecular marine ecology, ecophysiology, fisheries ecology, historical ecology, biological and physical oceanography, marine resource management and conservation.

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