My Ph.D. dissertation addresses how invertebrate larvae are affected by the interplay between anthropogenically driven pH changes and the coastal ocean’s inherently variable carbonate chemistry, and the interaction with rising temperature. This will be accomplished by (a) characterizing pH variability in the open coastal ocean and kelp forests on diurnal to seasonal time scales, (b) developing statistical tools to describe pH variability, (c) identifing how pH levels and variability affect the larvae of commercially important invertebrate species under future pH scenarios, and (d) testing for the interactive effects of predicted elevated temperature with pH variability and predicted pH declines on larvae of the study species.

I am also assisting with elucidating the temporal and spatial scales of variability in mussel connectivity and demograhpics in Southern California.