Research Interests:
My research thus far has focused on marine habitat facilitators, positive ecological interactions that occur in benthic marine communities in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico, and community-based resource management of a mollusk habitat facilitator, the black murex snail (Hexaplex nigritus = Muricanthus nigritus). My studies in the Gulf and at the University of Arizona for my Masters degree gave me an interdisciplinary background, and my PhD research here at the University of Hawaii will cross disciplines as well. My current research interests are the study of interactions between urban centers, watersheds, and coral reef environments, and how different management regimes of these connected systems affects coral settlement and biodiversity of reefs. Hawaii, and other Pacific islands, provide excellent examples of land/sea/people systems to study, as watersheds are confined and short in length, waterways often empty into bays with high coral cover, coral reefs support local economies, and various levels of urbanization exist along watersheds and coastal zones.