Dr. Florence Thomas
Area of Expertise
Marine Ecology and Biomechanics
Education
- Post Doctoral Fellow, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.
- Ph.D. Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A., 1992
- M.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, Rhode island, U.S.A., 1987
- B.S. Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., 1985
My research integrates physical, chemical, biological processes to examine many aspects of coastal ecology. My research is basically focused in four interconnected areas: 1) understanding how environmental variation at the scales of organisms affects the ecology of coral reef and macroalgae communities, 2) linking the physical aspects of the environment with organism responses through the application of engineering and physical models, 3) understanding how environmental characteristics influence the reproductive ecology of marine invertebrates, and 4) understanding how human induced changes in coastal systems impact near-shore coastal communities.