Dr R. Ian Perry

Affiliate Faculty Member

Associate Professor, University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
Associate Professor, University of Miami, Frost Institute for Data Science & Computing

Unit(s)

Aquamaps / AquaX
Changing Ocean Research Unit

Contact Information

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
4600, Rickenbacker Cswy, Key Biscayne, FL 33149
Miami, Florida
Email: gabriel.reygondeau@gmail.com
Website: https://www.aquamaps.org/

Social Media

Instagram: @aquamap
Bluesky: @aquamaps.bsky.social

Biography

Dr. Gabriel Reygondeau is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami, with appointments in the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing. He is also an Affiliate Professor at the University of British Columbia and serves as Lead Coordinator of AquaMaps and the AquaMaps 2.0 / AquaX lab. His work sits at the intersection of macroecology, oceanography, biodiversity informatics, and computational ecology, with a focus on building high resolution forecasting tools for aquatic biodiversity across marine and freshwater systems. 

Dr. Reygondeau develops AI enabled, ensemble, and big data modelling workflows that integrate species occurrence records, traits, expert knowledge, and environmental data to predict species distributions, biodiversity change, and ecosystem risk under environmental change. He leads the scientific coordination and long term development of AquaMaps 2.0 / AquaX, an open and scalable platform designed to deliver reproducible biodiversity forecasts and decision support tools for research, management, and policy applications.  

Before joining the University of Miami, he held research positions at the University of British Columbia, Yale University, DTU Aqua, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Paris VI, the University of Oslo, and Université de Montpellier. Across these roles, he contributed to major international initiatives on marine biodiversity, fisheries, and global environmental change, including AquaMaps, FishBase, Global Fishing Watch, Half-Earth and IPCC.  

Research Interests

Dr. Reygondeau’s research focuses on aquatic biodiversity forecasting, species distribution modelling, marine biogeography, and the development of open modelling infrastructure for biodiversity science. He is particularly interested in how environmental change reshapes the distribution of species, communities, and ecosystem functions across the global ocean and freshwater systems.  

His research interests include: developing ensemble and uncertainty aware species distribution models; integrating biological traits, expert knowledge, and environmental big data into scalable forecasting workflows; identifying present and future biodiversity hotspots; and producing high resolution spatial products that support marine conservation, fisheries management, and adaptation planning. He is also interested in linking biodiversity forecasting to applied tools for marine protected areas, spatial prioritization, and global assessment frameworks.   

More broadly, his work explores how quantitative ecology, oceanography, and computational methods can be combined to improve ecological realism, reproducibility, and operational relevance in biodiversity science.

He has authored more than 85 peer reviewed papers, contributed to international assessment reports, and helped build biodiversity products and applied tools used in conservation planning, marine spatial planning, and fisheries related risk assessment. His research combines methodological innovation with practical application, with the goal of translating biodiversity science into accessible, decision relevant information at regional to global scales.

Degrees

Bsc – Biology and Ecology – University of Savoie
Msc – Oceanography and Marine biology (option on Modelisation and statistic) – University of Paris VI
PhD – Marine Biogeography – University of Montpellier II and Cape Town

Teaching

Introduction to Biogeogeography and Species Distribution Modelling MBE709
Marine Species Distribution Model workshop (IOF UBC)

Research Gate

Publications

Reygondeau, G., Egorova, Y., Boerder, K., Tittensor, D.P., Kaschner, K., Kesner-Reyes, K., Bailly, N., & Cheung, W.W. (2025). AquaX: An enhanced and revised AquaMaps framework to model marine species distributions and biodiversity. PLOS One. 

Boyce, D.G., Tittensor, D.P., Garilao, C., Henson, S., Kaschner, K., Kesner-Reyes, K., Pigot, A., Reyes Jr, R.B., Reygondeau, G., Schleit, K.E., & Shackell, N.L. (2022). A climate risk index for marine life. Nature Climate Change, 12(9), 854-862. 

Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M., Moreno-Báez, M., Reygondeau, G., Cheung, W.W., Crosman, K.M., González-Espinosa, P.C., Lam, V.W., Oyinlola, M.A., Singh, G.G., Swartz, W., & Zheng, C.W. (2021). Enabling conditions for an equitable and sustainable blue economy. Nature, 591, 396-401. 

Reygondeau, G., Cheung, W.W., Wabnitz, C.C., Lam, V.W., Frölicher, T., & Maury, O. (2020). Climate change-induced emergence of novel biogeochemical provinces. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, 657. 

Pinsky, M.L., Reygondeau, G., Caddell, R., Palacios-Abrantes, J., Spijkers, J., & Cheung, W.W. (2019). Governance for species on the move needs mechanisms for newly shared fisheries. Science. 

Cheung, W., Frölicher, T., Reygondeau, G., et al. (2016). Large benefits to marine fisheries of meeting the 1.5°C global warming target. Science, 354(6319), 1591-1594. 

Lam, V., Cheung, W., Reygondeau, G., & Sumaila, U. (2016). Projected change in global fisheries revenues under climate change. Scientific Reports, 6, 32607.

Reygondeau, G., Longhurst, A., Beaugrand, G., Martinez, E., Antoine, D., & Maury, O. (2013). Toward Dynamic Biogeochemical Provinces. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 27, 1046-1058. 

Reygondeau, G., Maury, O., Fonteneau, A., Fromentin, J.M., Beaugrand, G., & Cury, P. (2012). Biogeography of tuna and billfish communities. Journal of Biogeography, 39, 114-129. 

Egorova, Y., Reygondeau, G., Cheung, W., & Pakhomov, E. (2024). Global Diversity of Mesopelagic Mesozooplankton. Nature Ecology and Evolution.