Rebecca Asch Biology ECU - East Carolina University Dr. Rebecca Asch Faculty Page Mon, 10/02/2023 - 12:40pm Skidaway Seminars Research Interests: As a fisheries oceanographer, my goal is to conduct research that will advance our understanding of how climate change affects fish populations and provide knowledge for the effective management of living marine resources. More specifically, my recent research has focused principally on the phenology of fish reproduction. Phenology refers to the study of seasonal, biological cycles and how they are influenced by weather and climate. In many ecosystems, warming temperatures are causing phenological events to occur earlier in the year. However, temperature sensitivity varies across marine organisms, such that seasonal events that previously occurred synchronously are likely to become decoupled under climate change. In many marine ecosystems, fishes time reproduction to coincide with plankton blooms. Since zooplankton are the primary prey of fish larvae, greater asynchrony between these events could lead to increased larval fish mortality, slower growth, reduced recruitment of young fishes to fisheries, and declining commercial and recreational catches. Research in the Asch Fisheries Oceanography Lab addresses this issue by investigating historical and future changes in phytoplankton, zooplankton, and fish phenology using long-term oceanographic time series, remote sensing, and Earth System Models.
