Dr. Les Watling
- B.S. Zoology, University of Calgary, Canada
- M.S. Marine Science, University of the Pacific, CA, USA, 1968
- Ph.D. Marine Studies, University of Delaware, DE, USA, 1974
Dr. Les Watling took a position in the Oceanography Department at the University of Maine in 1976. During his tenure at Maine Dr. Watling has been an Interim Chair of the Oceanography Department and Director of the Darling Marine Center. He has also served as President of The Crustacean Society, an international scientific organization dedicated to furthering knowledge of crustaceans. He is now Professor of Oceanography in the University's School of Marine Sciences.
His crustacean interests center on amphipods and cumaceans, but he is also currently working with spelaeogriphaceans and syncarids. Dr. Watling's cumacean studies are currently funded by a NSF-PEET grant and center on: 1) the description of new species from the South Pacific Ocean (both east and west sides) and the Gulf of Mexico and 2), developing molecular techniques for resolving phylogenetic relationships among the cumacean families.
Dr. Watling's benthic interests currently deal with impacts of humans on the sea bottom, with an emphasis on organic enrichment and habitat disruption. Topics investigated in the last few years include the impact of salmon net-pen aquaculture on benthic environments, the possibility that digestive enzymes in deposit-feeder guts can release metals bound in the matrix of marine sediments, and the effects of fishing activities on benthic habitats and its consequences for benthic community structure. The salmon farm research lead to the development of a microbial early-warning system, where the change from an aerobic to anaerobic microbial community is detected using lipid analyses long before changes occur in the larger organisms that are normally monitored.