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Molecular Laboratory and Tissue Collection Technician
Gabriela is the lab technician for the Ichthyology department, where she assists researchers to get molecular data. In addition, she helps to catalog, organize and maintain the Ichthyology tissue collection. Her research interest is in the phylogeny of the genus Chromis, a large group with over 106 described species. As a PhD student in the Integrative Biology Department at UCB, she studies the diving physiology and genetics of sea turtles.
Research Associate
Biodiversity Informatics, Ichthyology
I am a zoologist by training, but since 1990 I have been working full-time in biodiversity informatics – the application of information technologies to biodiversity science. Academy scientists generate enormous amounts of information as they collect, describe, document, and compare organisms. That information comes in a variety of forms, including text, photographs, DNA sequences, taxonomic names, classifications, distributions maps, and ultimately publications.
Field Associate
I am interested in the behavioral ecology of fishes, particularly in species that exhibit complex relationships with other organisms, and strong habitat dependencies. Currently I am working in the lab of Dr. Alison Gould on the genus Siphamia, a group of tiny cardinalfish that exhibit bioluminescence though symbiosis with light producing bacteria, and that rely on invertebrates such as sea urchins and corals for protection from predators.
Research Scientist
I study the evolutionary ecology of a bioluminescent symbiosis between coral reef fish in the genus Siphamia and luminous bacteria. My research integrates natural history and ecology with genomics to understand how this highly specialized association evolved and how host-symbiont specificity is maintained over time and space. Working with the Steinhart Aquarium, I am also developing this gut-associated symbiosis as a tractable model system to investigate the mechanisms regulating the complex relationships between animals and beneficial bacteria.
Curator of Ichthyology, Emeritus
Systematics of grenadiers (Family Macrouridae)
My principal research interest concerns the systematics of grenadiers, a group of more than 400 deep-sea fishes related to the codfish. Grenadiers are found in all oceans, but 80-90% of the species are confined to subtropical and tropical seas. Most grenadiers live on the continental slope at depths between 200 m and 2000 m, but some range to below 6000 m. A few species are commercially exploited by large trawlers dragging at depths often exceeding 1000 m. The group seems to have evolved in the deep sea, as no shallow-water close relatives are known.
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Chancey MacDonald is a post-doctoral researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, where he is a co-investigator of how depth interacts with the assembly drivers, functional structure, and ecology of global reef fish assemblages, as well as global stressors on mesophotic coral ecosystems. Chancey completed his PhD at James Cook University in Australia, where he investigated how depth influences a broad range of ecological relationships among coral-associated reef fishes.