Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Seaweeds are the basis of food webs in most marine rocky shores worldwide, so understanding their ecology is increasingly necessary. To date, however, most scientific studies of seaweed population ecology have been done without searching for potentially unifying principles that would apply across different taxonomic groups. As a result, the conclusions of such studies are mostly applicable to similar species, but not to broad groups. My research program will search for unifying principles that will make seaweed population ecology more predictive. In particular, I will develop ecological theory on biomass-density dynamics during the development of seaweed stands. Biomass-density models are simple, yet powerful, tools to predict future population trends, to estimate the intensity of competitive interactions among organisms, and to estimate stand biomass when this cannot be measured directly due to conservation concerns or logistic constraints. My research will, therefore, generate a comprehensive framework for seaweed population dynamics that will positively impact fundamental studies on seaweed ecology and applied studies on the management of these resources.