MODIFICATION OF SEAWATER CHEMISTRY BY ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS

Ecosystem engineers modify their environment creating habitat for a variety of other species. Often, this is via the dense aggregation of individuals (think trees forming a forest or mussels forming a mussel bed) which has important implications for the exchange of materials between the surrounding seawater and the interstices of the habitat. I'm interested in understanding how this limited mixing along with the biological processes of the ecosystem engineers can lead to chemical alterations within these habitats.

Relevant Publications and Conference Talks

Ninokawa, Aaron, Takeshita, Yuichiro, Jellison, Brittany M., Jurgens, Laura J., & Gaylord, Brian. 2020. Biological modification of seawater chemistry by an ecosystem engineer, the California mussel, Mytilus californianus. Limnology and Oceanography, 65(1), 157–172.

Ninokawa, Aaron Takeo, Elsmore, Kristen, Jellison, Brittany, Jurgens, Laura, Takeshita, Yuichiro, Hickman, Victoria, & Gaylord, Brian. 2020. Seawater chemical gradients produced by heterotrophic ecosystem engineers. Contributed talk at the 2020 Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Diego, CA, USA.

Ninokawa, Aaron Takeo, Elsmore, Kristen, Jellison, Brittany, Jurgens, Laura, Takeshita, Yuichiro, Hickman, Victoria, & Gaylord, Brian. 2019. Variability in how heterotrophic ecosystem engineers modify seawater chemistry. Contributed talk at the 2019 Western Society of Naturalists Meeting in Ensenada, Mexico.

Ninokawa, Aaron, Jellison, Brittany, & Gaylord, Brian. 2017 (11). Biological modification of seawater chemistry by the ecosystem engineer, Mytilus californianus. Contributed talk at the 2017 Western Society of Naturalists meeting in Pasadena, CA, USA