Welcome to the Zooplankton Ecology Lab.

Kendra L. Daly
Associate Professor

College of Marine Science
University of South Florida
140 Seventh Ave. South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Office: MSL Rm 220C
Phone: 727-553-1041
Lab: MSL 224B-C
Phone: 727-553-1207
Fax: 727-553-1189
E-mail: kdaly@marine.usf.edu

My research interests focus on zooplankton ecology with the aim of understanding the physical and biological factors that control the abundance and distribution of zooplankton and the role of zooplankton in marine food webs and biogeochemical cycles. I have worked in a number of marine environments, including the Arctic and Antarctic, the Bering Sea, SE Alaska coastal waters, Puget Sound, the tropical Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and coastal Atlantic regions.

Large regions of the world’s oceans have persistent oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), which appear to be sensitive to climate variability and ocean acidification. Dissolved oxygen influences marine biogeochemical cycles and, therefore, strongly impacts marine carbon and nitrogen cycles. Strong vertical oxygen gradients also exert a considerable influence on organism distributions. Currently, we are investigating the vertical distribution and metabolic strategies of zooplankton in relation to the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in the eastern tropical north Pacific. In particular, the distribution, feeding, and metabolic products of zooplankton will be investigated. This work will contribute to our knowledge of the role of mesozooplankton in biogeochemical cycles and carbon flux, especially in relation to how processes may be modified in regions with suboxic environments and strong redox gradients. In association with a warming ocean. the oxygen minimum zones may be expanding.

I have participated in the Southern Ocean GLOBEC program, which aims to understand the influence of climate change and physical forcing on variability in marine populations. As part of this project we used high-frequency acoustic systems, divers, and shipboard experiments to assess the overwintering physiology of the Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, as well as the seasonal distribution of zooplankton in relation to physical processes and upper trophic level predators. Currently, we are supported for the Pan-Regional Synthesis and Modeling Phase to develop end-to-end food web models.

In addition, I have been involved in helping to develop the NSF's Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). This $331M initiative will provide transformative new technoogy to support sensors, allowing the ocean science community to obtain continuous measurements of ocean processes for decades. For more information see http://www.joiscience.org/ocean_observing. For information on ocean sensors, see the Ocean Sensor Gateway website (link on tab above).