Howdy, thanks for dropping by. I’m a marine ecologist interested in temperate coastal food webs and the processes that organize them. If you’d like to learn more about my work, check out the Research section.
RECENT NEWS
July 6, 2023 – So much great news lately! An Antarctic collaboration has just been published here at Elementa, and I will be starting my new job as a marine ecologist for the NOAA NCCOS group at Kasitsna Bay at the end of the month!
February 22, 2023 – Some really neat work I collaborated on exploring the effects of sunflower star predation on sea urchins has just been published at the Royal Society Proceedings B. Check it out here!
January 30, 2023 – Sound familiar? I recently lent my voice to an educational animated short by Cedar Thicket! Sea ice is NICE!
December 30, 2022 – An article I wrote about sunflower seastars and their indirect effects on sea urchins was published in both the Friday Harbor Labs ‘Tidebites’ series and in The Journals of the San Juan Islands.
December 10, 2022 – I’m spending the week at the Smithsonian’s Carrie Bow Cay marine station to conduct a Reef Life Survey fish census. We’re diving on reefs, in seagrass, mangrove, and sandy habitats. Follow along with the action on MarineGEO’s Twitter!
October 27, 2022 – Last week I was out in the field with some of the great folks from the Seattle Aquarium doing ROV surveys as a part of the NSF INTERN program. I’m working with the Smithsonian’s MarineGEO program and the Samish Indian Nation to survey kelp communities around the San Juan Islands. Check out one of our deep (below the kelp) transects here.
June 27, 2022 – I’m back at the Friday Harbor Labs again this summer, (hopefully) wrapping up the last field work of my PhD. This year, I’m exploring seastar feeding preferences and the related ecological implications for kelp forests.
August 23, 2021 – I’ve been a bit off-grid lately, but I think that means I’m actually starting to get work done! Took a Marine Botany course this summer at Friday Harbor Labs, and now am cranking away at sea urchin behavior experiments.
May 18, 2021 – I had the great pleasure of delivering the University of Washington Marine Biology Seminar today on my work using SCUBA as a scientific tool. You can find an archived version of my talk here or through my Media page.
May 13, 2021 – Things are feeling almost back to normal…? I’ll be headed back to the Friday Harbor Labs in less than a month to finish the final feeding experiments with sea urchins as well as pilot a new study using historical ecology as a tool. Can’t wait to get back in the water!
Ross Whippo 