Brittany Huntington, PhD
Scientific Diver / Coral Ecologist
Bio
Brittany began her research and science diving career in 1999 at the University of California, Los Angeles during her bachelor degree. She relocated to San Francisco State to pursue a master’s degree in seagrass community ecology as a EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellow. She has pursued community ecology in varied climates from fresh water lakes in Tanzania, to costal lagoons in the Solomon Islands, to the cold waters of the San Juan Islands, to the tropical patch reefs of the Caribbean.
Brittany's current research interests in benthic ecology include marine reserve design and performance, landscape ecology, and adaptive management. To this end, she has collaborated on several projects over the past few years investigating algal removal effects on corals (McClanahan et al. 2011), evidence of cascading reserve effects on corals (Huntington et al. 2011), parrotfish grazing impacts on coral recruitment and survival, variation in reserve performance (Karnauskas et al. 2011), and coral nursery projects (Lirman et al. 2010).
Brittany recently defended her PhD dissertation in October 2011 at the Rosenstiel School of Atmospheric Science. She now serves as a National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow with NOAA and the Southeast Fisheries Science Center. She works with Dr. Margaret Miller to develop best practices in coral nursery out-planting techniques using naturally recovering Acropora populations as a model.
