Rosenberg Institute Seminar Series - Dan Okamoto

Dan Okamoto, Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley

Addressing climate change and spatial structure in temperate nearshore ecosystems  

Abstract: Nearshore marine ecosystems are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet, host diverse assemblages of ecologically, economically, and culturally important species, and also lie on the front lines of climate change. Yet like many ecosystems, classic models of organismal and ecological dynamics have often underpredicted effects of harvest and climate on both ecosystems and people. I will present recent work showing how measuring and modeling processes such as energetic plasticity, acclimatization, consumer-resource dynamics, and metapopulation structure can substantially improve our understanding of how individuals, populations, and ecosystems respond to climate change and harvest for the benefit of people.  

Bio: Dan Okamoto is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the UC, Berkeley.  He is a statistician, modeler, and field ecologist.  His group studies how trophic interactions, climate, and fishing affect dynamics of populations and communities, especially species like sea urchins, kelp, abalone, and forage fish. He enjoys working with communities and managers to improve fisheries and conservation. He received his PhD from UCSB, an MSc from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a BS from the University of Washington, and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Simon Fraser University, the Hakai Institute and at Florida State University.