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Click on the image to explore how Peggy Fong's research connects human impacts to habitats |
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Dr. Peggy Fong is a Professor in the
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA.
She is a marine ecologist who works at the interface of ecosystem and community ecology, specifically assessing
the influence of human impacts on coastal marine ecosystems, with an overarching goal to inform conservation of
habitats in the face of a changing world. Her work includes research on estuaries and lagoons in California and
coral reefs off the coast of Panama. Her contributions include the development of novel methods, the
identification of the complexities inherent in studying community structure and function, and greater understanding
of the interactive forces governing communities.
"To find the smoking gun on causation, the only way is to get out into the field and add or subtract something." |
Across the globe, seagrass communities, estuaries and coral reefs are undergoing dramatic shifts correlated
to a suite of factors, including climate change, disease, nutrient enrichment and overharvesting. Humans are
impacting nutrient cycling and processes through urban development, resource extraction, overfishing, and
ecotourism, all of which affect the health and sustainability of coastal marine systems. Peggy's work
has relevance not only to ecologists, but also to those concerned with the effects of climate change, the
alteration of biogeochemical cycling, and the accelerating human use of natural resources. In order to conserve
coastal marine communities, an understanding of the basic ecological processes that shape, maintain, and
potentially shift their structure and function is essential. Peggy's research continues to make contributions
to the development of global solutions.
Peggy's Research:
