The Coastal Oceanography Group (COG)

Lauren E. Garske University of California, Davis Graduate Group in Ecology, Department of Environmental Science & Policy Bodega Marine Laboratory P.O. Box 247, 2099 Westside Road Bodega Bay, CA 94923 USA Phone: (707) 875-1973 Email:  legarske@ucdavis.edu B.A. (Marine Biology & Chemistry) University of California at Santa Cruz, 2000

Research Interests:
Native to California’s central coast and virtually born with gills, I might have been destined to spend my life studying the ocean. Or at least that’s what my horoscope said… Over the years, I’ve been interested in a lot of ideas but something that continues to amaze me is the relative lack of knowledge concerning water quality in nearshore environments. When I say ‘nearshore’, I mean the stretch of water between where you mush wet sand between your toes in ankle-deep seafoam and a mere kilometer or so into the salty blue... not 5, 10, 20 km offshore. This narrow band is where most people interact with the ocean and where we find some of its most productive ecosystems. It is also incredibly complex in terms of physical processes, a fact frequently overlooked by models constructed at larger scales and missed by satellites.

What we know about water quality in the nearshore usually relates to regulated point sources, eutrophication, or fecal bacteria loads along public beaches; we understand much less about the distribution of heavy metals, organics, pharmaceuticals and other pathogens in the adjacent marine ecosystems. Research efforts have tended to emphasize pollutant delivery through watersheds and estuaries rather than ocean endpoints. It is a common misconception that nearshore ocean pollution patterns are well-understood.

Within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, I use nearshore oceanographic patterns to predict when and where pollutants will concentrate if based solely on abiotic parameters. I’ll test these predictions by using passive sampling devices and subsequently evaluating toxicological patterns in the environment. Kelp forest habitats provide an ideal ecosystem for investigating these ideas because their biophysical structure provides a natural three-dimensional gradient to evaluate pollutant exposure across relative to coastal inputs. A diversity of associated organisms will allow me to tease apart the relative importance of a species’ physical position, trophic position and relative mobility in terms of pollutant uptake. In terms of pollutants, I am especially interested in heavy metals, organophosphates and the pathogen Toxoplasma gondii, which has recently been identified as a major contributor to local sea otter population declines. My aim is to provide policy and management with insight for predicting the relative susceptibility of these nearshore areas to pollutants based on the spatial and temporal patterns of local oceanography and biotic pathways.

For a more detailed peek at my background and professional interests, check out my curriculum vitae.

And life beyond science? The list kicks off with excellent friends, music, hiking, yoga, metalsmithing, writing, surfing, traveling, margaritas…

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