Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Earth & Marine Sciences A308
Phone: 831.459.5358
Fax: 831.459.5353
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DONALD C. POTTS Professor of EEBiology B.Sc., University of Queensland, Australia Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara 1971-72 Lecturer, Bishops University, Quebec, Canada 1972-73 Lecturer, Flinders University, South Australia 1973-78 Research Fellow, Australian National University POTTS LAB

Earth & Marine Sciences A408 University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95064 phone 831.459.4417 fax 831.459.5353 potts@biology.ucsc.edu office hours

Coral reef ecology; marine biodiversity; and remote sensing

Because coastal environments involve the land-sea-air interfaces in proximity to land masses, where they are especially vulnerable to changes in any of these three environmental components, our research is based on the premise that coastal systems are already changing in response to the combined effects of natural and anthropogenic processes. That these changes will accelerate in coming decades, and that the ecology of these systems is likely to be substantially different within the working lives of today's students. Work in my laboratory involves three, closely related themes that I see becoming even more integrated in future.

1. Coral Reef Ecosystems: These are probably the fastest changing marine ecosystem because of their limited area, their concentration close to many of the world's most rapidly growing human populations, and their sensitivity to regional and global climatic, atmospheric and land use changes. We are studying the ecology, genetics, evolution and biogeography of the coral family Poritidae as a model for exploring a 50 million year history of successful responses to geological, tectonic, physical, climatic and biological change culminating in the disruptions of the Plio-Pleistocene glaciations.

2. Marine Biodiversity: Intra- and inter-specific diversity is not only another consequence of past environmental change and of adjustments to prevailing conditions; it also represents the potential for short and longterm ecological and evolutionary responses to present and future environmental change. We are working with the California Academy of Sciences to develop a strong taxonomic and phylogenetic dimension for ecological and environmental change studies in coastal California and on reefs of the western Pacific.

3. Remote Sensing: Many ecological and environmental processes operate on spatial scales much greater than those available to ground-based biologists using traditional methods. We are developing high resolution, aerial, remote sensing techniques to gather ecological scale biological and ecological data (ca. 1 m) simultaneously over entire systems (e.g. estuaries, watersheds, whole reefs) as a way to define and work on functional units, not just isolated subsets of them. We are using hyperspectral imaging from aircraft to detect, map and monitor biological communities and environmental stressors in geothermal regions of eastern California and coastal margins around Monterey Bay. This is now being extended to coral reefs in Fiji and the Northwest Hawaiian Islands in collaborations with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other agencies.

While I am especially interested in students whose interests fit in one of these themes, and preferably with overlapping interest in others, I try not to direct students towards a particular thesis topic, since I believe that defining one's own research topic is an essential part of graduate student training.

Selected publications

Maragos, J.E., Potts, D., Aeby, G., Gulko, D., Kenyon, J., Siciliano, D. and VanRavenswaay, D. The 2002-2003 rapid ecological assessment of corals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Part 1: species and distribution. Pacific Science. (In press)

Schwartz, J.A., Weis, V.M. and Potts, D.C. 2002. Feeding behavior and acquisition of zooxanthellae by planula larvae of the sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima. Marine Biology. 140:471-478.

Potts, D.C. and Jacobs, J.R. 2002. Evolution of reef-building Scleractinia in turbid environments: a paleo-ecological hypothesis. Proceedings 9th International Coral Reef Symposium, Bali, pp. 249-254.

Jupiter, S.D., Potts, D.C., Siciliano, D., Joyce, K.E. and Wasson, K. 2002. Habitat variation and health assessment of a dominant saltmarsh plant, Salicornia virginica, using hyperspectral tools. Proc. 7th Intl. Conf. Rem. Sens. Mar. Coast. Envir.

Martini, B.A., Silver, E.A., Potts, D.C., Pickles, W.L. 2000. Geological and geobotanical studies of Long Valley Caldera, CA, USA utilizing new 5 m hyperspectral imagery. Proceedings of the IEEE 2000 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Hawaii. 4: 1376-1378.

Edmands, S. and Potts, D.C. 1997. Population genetic structure in brooding sea anemones (Epiactis spp.) with contrasting reproductive modes. Mar. Biol. 127:485-498.

Greenberg, N., Garthwaite, R.L. and Potts, D.C. 1996. Biochemical and morphological evidence for a newly introduced species of Aurelia in San Francisco Bay. Mar. Biol. 125:401-410.

Tsuchida, C. and Potts, D.C. 1994. The effects of illumination, food and symbionts on the growth of the sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima (Brandt, 1835). I. Ramet growth. II. Clonal growth. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 183: 243-258.

Done, T.J. and Potts, D.C. 1992. Influences of habitat and natural disturbances on contributions of massive Porites corals to reef communities. Marine Biology. 114:479-493.

Graham, W.M., Field, J.G. and Potts, D.C. 1992. Persistent "upwelling shadows" and their influence on zooplankton distributions. Marine Biology. 114:561-570.