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Postdoctoral Research FellowResearch UnitPelagic Ecosystems Lab DegreesPh.D., Oceanography, Univ. of Washington |
Contact Information
Email: a.mclaskey@oceans.ubc.ca
Website: Pelagic Ecosystems Lab
Research Interests
I am a biological oceanographer and zooplankton ecologist interested in the role that zooplankton play in marine food webs and how they are influenced by ocean change. I use a wide variety of techniques and am interested in effective monitoring strategies to detect biological changes. As a postdoctoral researcher at UBC I am using fatty acid markers to investigate food web structure and dynamics in the northern Strait of Georgia.
Biography
I completed my PhD at the University of Washington investigating the effects of ocean acidification and multiple stressors on ecologically important crustacean zooplankton. I combined manipulative experiments and field observations across natural oceanographic gradients to examine the effects of pH and oxygen on enzyme activities and physiological rates of krill. In the laboratory I studied the direct and indirect effects of elevated carbon dioxide on the phytoplankton—copepod trophic link, focusing on changes in fatty acid composition. I have lived on the Salish Sea my whole life and my research motivation has always been to understand the connections and feedbacks between the complex oceanography of this dynamic coastal region, the incredible productivity that it supports, and our human communities.