Ernst B. Peebles
Associate Professor
Biological Oceanography
Ph.D. University of South Florida, 1996
Office Phone: (727) 553-3983
Lab Phone: (727) 553-1296
Email: epeebles@usf.edu
CV: View PDF
Research Interests
My principal research focus has been on spatio-temporal interactions between coastal fishes and their prey, particularly as these are affected by physical processes. One product of this effort is the discovery that the spawning effort of zooplanktivorous fishes may actively adapt to the local zooplankton supply – a relationship that has helped explain variations in coastal-pelagic fish stocks in various places around the world. To date, personnel from my lab have quantified ichthyoplankton and invertebrate zooplankton distribution and abundance responses to freshwater inflow in 18 estuarine areas on Florida's west coast. Recent research has been oriented toward work with stable isotopes and in-situ bio-optics systems. We are presently developing a bio-optics system that will be used to create a landscape perspective on estuarine fish/zooplankton/hyperbenthos interactions with phytoplankton blooms, phytoplankton sedimentation events, and areas of high benthic microalgal growth. Recent interdisciplinary work with other labs at USF has involved stable-isotope-based ecosystem analysis, identification of the source and ecological role of estuarine flocculant deposits, and detection of the land-use source of estuarine nitrogen and its eventual fate at higher trophic levels.
Selected Publications
Peebles, E.B., S.E. Burghart and D.J. Hollander. 2007. Causes of inter-estuarine variability in bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli) salinity at capture. Estuaries and Coasts 30(6): 1060-1074
Flannery, M.S., E.B. Peebles and R.T. Montgomery. 2002. A percent-of-flow approach for managing reductions of freshwater inflows from unimpounded rivers to southwest Florida estuaries. Estuaries 25:1318-1332
Peebles, E.B. 2002. Temporal resolution of biological and physical influences on bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli) egg abundance near a river-plume frontal zone. Marine Ecololgy Progress Series 237:257-269
Peebles, E.B., J.R. Hall and S.G. Tolley 1996. Egg production by the bay anchovy Anchoa mitchilli in relation to adult and larval prey fields. Marine Ecology Progress Series 131:61-73.
