Category: Postdocs

STRI postdocoral fellow

I am a doctoral student in the Palaeobiology and Historical Ecology group at the University of Vienna. In my dissertation, Survival of the Smallest? I focus on how climate change and other human pressures influence growth and life history in black gobies – small, bottom-dwelling generalists that often swim under the scientific radar. Although not commercially targeted and may appear unremarkable, black gobies are key players in coastal ecosystems, offering valuable insights into how non-commercial species respond to long-term environmental change.

I use incrementally grown ear-stones (otoliths) to compare modern goby growth patterns with radiocarbon-dated fossil (Holocene) otoliths from sediments. These small, calcified structures grow throughout a fish’s life, recording seasonal growth like tree rings. As the only complex parts that regularly accumulate on the seafloor, otoliths offer rare archives of historical growth patterns, making them ideal for reconstructing long-term trends and establishing baselines of pre-industrial conditions.

Thanks to the James Van Tassell Fellowship, I am excited to temporarily swap the Mediterranean for the tropics. During my stay in Panama, I will use similar otolith-based methods to study growth and life history variation in cryptobenthic gobies from the Caribbean and the tropical eastern Pacific – ecologically essential reef fishes that, like their Adriatic relatives, leave behind a historical record that can help uncover how tropical ecosystems have changed through time.

STRI FELLOW

As a marine ecologist I study how marine predators and herbivores shape coastal ecosystems, and how those species interactions are influenced by changes in environmental conditions imposed by oceanographic processes. In particular, I focus on wind-driven upwelling events which allow the rise of cold, nutrient-rich water from the ocean’s depths to shallow coastal ecosystems. Seasonal variation in surface temperatures and food-availability generated by upwelling events can alter the strength of predation and herbivory. I rely on experimental manipulations of fish to study how consumer pressure on reef associated algae and sessile invertebrates varies along upwelling gradients along the Pacific coast of Panama and Costa Rica. My favorite animals is the pelican.  

Como ecólogo marino, estudio cómo los depredadores y herbívoros marinos dan forma a los ecosistemas costeros, y cómo esas interacciones entre especies se ven influenciadas por los cambios en las condiciones ambientales impuestas por los procesos oceanográficos. En particular, me centro en los fenómenos de surgencia impulsados ​​por el viento que permiten el ascenso de agua fría y rica en nutrientes desde las profundidades del océano hasta los ecosistemas costeros. La variación estacional en las temperaturas de la superficie y la disponibilidad de alimentos generada por los eventos de surgencias pueden alterar la fuerza de la depredación y la herbivoría. Me baso en manipulaciones experimentales de peces para estudiar cómo la presión de los consumidores sobre las algas e invertebrados sésiles asociados a los arrecifes varía a lo largo de los gradientes de surgencia a lo largo de la costa del Pacífico de Panamá y Costa Rica. Mi animal favorito es el pelícano.