Dr. Baguley's Research Interests

My primary research interests are in the field of marine invertebrate ecology in both shallow-water and deep-sea benthic environments. Benthic communities integrate long-term water column processes and are therefore useful indicators of ecosystem health. On the community level of organization I am interested in both structure (abundance, biomass, and biodiversity) and function (respiration and metabolism) of benthic invertebrates with respect to the physical and chemical environment; while on the population level I am interested in mechanisms of dispersal and speciation using molecular methods.

From a shallow-water perspective, I am interested in assessing changes in land use/cover (i.e., development) in coastal watersheds and the associated effects on coastal ecosystems and invertebrate communities.

My deep-sea interests are geared more toward classical community ecology questions. Deep-sea research has lagged behind shallow-water studies because of logistical sampling difficulties. Therefore, we are still struggling to understand mechanisms responsible for organism distributions and how they respond to topographic, geochemical, and physical forcing. My dissertation research specifically addressed similar deep-sea ecology questions, but there is still much work to be done. In particular, we know very little about the molecular population structure of deep-sea benthic invertebrates.

A new area of focus for me will be studying molecular phylogenies of Great Basin endemic freshwater invertebrates. The Great Basin is a unique isolated biome with large numbers of endemic species. However, very little is know about small inconspicuous aquatic invertebrates.