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Marine Conservation Ecologist
Postdoctoral Researcher Stanford University, Hopkins Marine Laboratory 120 Oceanview Blvd., Pacific Grove, CA 93950 email: jkoleary@stanford.edu |
Current Projects and Objectives
I am a marine ecologist working with communities and agencies to integrate science with conservation and management both locally and globally. My research focuses on how human disturbances affect marine ecosystems through both direct and indirect mechanisms and ways we can mitigate impacts. I have worked for 12 years developing conservation initiatives in the western U.S.A, coastal Kenya, and in Pacific islands.
As a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University (Micheli and Palumbi Labs), I am investigating how ocean acidification will change benthic habitat and invertebrate recruitment in northern and central California. I am doing this work in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Game to help inform fisheries management. I am simultaneously working to develop genetic assays of larval settlement (recruitment) as a potential long-term monitoring tool. We are planning to use these assays to identify large and small scale oceanographic factors that influence recruitment.
I am continuing my ongoing work in coral reef ecology and conservation. As the co-director of the Adaptive Management Program for marine protected areas (MPAs) in Kenya, I am working with the Kenya Wildlife Service to help managers use data to make proactive management decisions.
Setting up ocean acidification experiment at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Invited Working Group Participant
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Previous Professional Experience
I was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Science Foundation's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) where I worked with a team of international scientists on a global model of the ecosystem services provided to humans by maintaining healthy oceans (the OHI index).
I was a consulting researcher at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. In this capacity, I worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to develop the Adaptive Management Program in the Mombasa Marine Park and Reserve as a pilot program of proactive marine management. I was formerly a marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game (2000-2003). I was one of the principle co-authors on the state management plan for seven species of abalone. In my early career, I was the first biologist hired by the Napa County Resource Conservation District (1998-1999) and developed a watershed-wide salmonid assessment program using volunteer monitors. The program resulted in major stream restoration efforts by the state. 
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Awards and Funding (partial list)
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Kenyan fishers in Gazi
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