People

Principal Investigator

Photo from WFSU

David Kimbro

Ph.D. University of California at Davis

M.S. University of California at Davis

David is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences at Northeastern University. He obtained his master’s and Ph.D degrees in Ecology from the University of California at Davis, where he was advised by Edwin Grosholz. David held a postdoctoral position at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory, where he was promoted to an Assistant Scholar Scientist position. In 2013, David began his current position at Northeastern University. At NU, David teaches Ecology at the undergraduate level and Experimental Design and Analysis at the graduate level. David uses near shore coastal habitats such as oyster reefs, salt marshes and seagrass meadows to test ecological theory and applies new knowledge to help guide conserveration and restoration of these habitats and their important ecosystem functions.

Email: d.kimbro [at] northeastern.edu

Graduate Students

Karen Aerni

B.S. Carnegie Mellon University 2008

Karen initially joined the Kimbro Lab as a Research Technician after years of working in the terrestrial realm both abroad with international conservation organizations and at home with the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey. She has trekked through savannas and grasslands, tropical rain forests and temperate forests to work with elephants, large predators, primates, birds of prey, iguanas and frogs. Karen is now wading into the marine world to research the consequences of anthropogenically modified disturbance regimes on the salt marsh and oyster reef communities they structure. Broad geographic patterns identified using remote sensing and GIS will be followed up with field experiments to determine how variation in local-scale changes to a disturbance regime will interact with global drivers to alter community composition at multiple trophic levels and the provision of ecosystem services.

Email: aerni.k [at] northeastern.edu

Nicole Peckham

B.S. Northeastern University, 2017

Nicole has been working in the Kimbro Lab since she interned in 2015, completing field work in both salt marsh and oyster reef systems. After completing the Three Seas program as an undergraduate, she began working as a technician looking at nonconsumptive effects on Florida oyster reefs. Now, she is a Ph.D. student in the lab looking at risk effects in New England kelp forests.

Email: peckham.n [at] northeastern.edu

Technicians

Adrienne Breef-Pilz

M.S. Northeastern University, 2017

B.S. University of Massachusetts, 2013

Adrienne manages the water quality instruments, as well as the outreach projects for the lab in Florida. Prior to joining the lab Adrienne worked with Dr. Joe Ayers for her master’s project, along with the Outreach Program at the Marine Science Center. During her tour of the MSC she always made sure to point out Boston from the top of Eastpoint along with Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Facility. Prior to her Master’s, Adrienne interned, volunteered and worked at the New England Aquarium where she dove in Ft. Wetherill, Rhode Island; Bimini, Bahamas; and the Phoenix Islands. When not working she can be found diving in the springs or reading on the beach.

Email: breef-pilz.a [at] northeastern.edu

Lab Alums

Post-Docs

Torrance Hanley

Ph.D. Yale University, 2009

B.A. Cornell University, 2002

Torrie joined the Hughes and Kimbro labs in September 2013, making the switch from freshwater to saltwater. Torrie is interested in factors regulating trophic dynamics and how bottom-up and top-down forces interact to affect species interactions. Her dissertation research focused on the effects of resource availability and predation on Daphnia life history and stoichiometry. Torrie is also interested in how inter- and intra-specific diversity impact trophic interactions. To look at this question, she conducted a study looking at the effects of Daphnia intraspecific diversity on consumer-resource population dynamics. In making the transition from freshwater to saltwater, Torrie is currently exploring similar questions on the role of diversity in trophic interactions using seagrass and salt marsh communities. Torrie is now the Regional Coordinator for the MassBays Metro Boston Region, as well as an Associate Research Scientist at the MSC.

Timothy Pusack

Ph.D. Oregon State University

B.S. Colgate College

Dr. Tim Pusack is broadly interested in community ecology, population connectivity, and the effect of environmental stress gradients. He works in a variety of systems including coral reefs, salt marshes, and estuaries. His focal study while in the Kimbro lab described how salinity fluctuations modified predator-prey dynamics between Stramonita haemastoma and Crossastrea virginica in estuaries in Florida. He also investigated the aggregative feeding behavior of S. haemastoma that occurs when the gastropod reaches high local densities. Currently, his research interests are describing the role of Cormorants, Phalacrocorax auratus, in New England food webs, crab distributions in New England estuaries, and ways to enhance coral propagation for sustainable husbandry. Tim is now an Assistant Professor at Williams-Mystic.

Graduate Students

Tanya Rogers

Ph.D. Northeastern University, 2018

B.S. University of Puget Sound, 2010

Tanya is interested in how and why species interactions vary in space and time, and what consequences this has in the context of environmental change, species losses, and species introductions. She conducted a study on historical diversity change in the Bay Mouth Bar system in Florida, and researched how blue crabs might impact salt marsh communities and green crab populations if they expand their range north of Cape Cod as the climate warms. Tanya is now an NCR Postdoctoral Research Associate at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Check out her personal website for more information.

Harriet Booth

M.S. Northeastern University, 2017

B.S. Brown University, 2013

Harriet is interested in how species interactions drive community structure and dynamics in coastal ecosystems as well as how these interactions are altered by human influence. Her graduate research focused on predator-prey dynamics in the Matanzas River, St. Augustine FL. Harriet is now working at the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries.

Hanna Tillotson

M.S. Florida State University, 2014

B.S. University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2010

Hanna is interested in the factors that control marine community structure; specifically the consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predators and their relative influence along environmental gradients. Her focal study system has been oyster reefs along the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts. She hope to address the cause of valuable habitat losses as well as further understand the key factors regulating basal resource abundance within communities. Hanna now works at the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Technicians

Adrienne Breef-Pilz

M.S. Northeastern University, 2017

B.S. University of Massachusetts, 2013

Forest Schenck

B.S. Macalester College

Forest joined the Hughes and Kimbro Labs in August 2013. In the Kimbro lab, Forest worked on a project examining how changes in habitat morphology induced by nutrient loading impact community ecology in a salt marsh. Concurrently, Forest assisted with a number of projects in the Hughes lab exploring the role of diversity and local adaptation on Spartina and Zostera viability. Forest has now completed his Ph.D. in the Hughes lab

Meagan Murdock

B.S. University of Texas

Meagan joined the Hughes and Kimbro labs to lead a project sponsored by the National Park Service, which examined the population and community dynamics of intertidal oyster reefs on the northeast coast of Florida. She also assisted with salt marsh studies in the Hughes Lab. Meagan is now a master’s student at the University of Miami.

Evan Pettis

B.S. Florida State University

Evan assisted with numerous grueling Kimbro oyster projects from 2010-2012 and handled all of our GIS and mapping needs. And he got stuck in the mud – for science! Evan now works as a fisheries technician for Texas Parks and Wildlife.