Contact: laoki [at] uoregon.edu

I am an ecosystem ecologist and coastal scientist interested in the physical and biological drivers of ecosystem functions, especially in the context of anthropogenic forcing and global change. I joined the University of Oregon's Data Science Initiative in 2021, where I focus on integrating data across spatial and temporal scales to understand ecosystem dynamics, including resilience to extreme events and interactions of multiple stressors.

Prior to joining the Univeristy of Oregon, I held a post-doc at Cornell University where I studied the environmental drivers of seagrass wasting disease. Working with Dr. Drew Harvell and collaborators from 6 institutions, I coordinated a three-year latitudinal survey of eelgrass meadows from Southern California to Alaska. 

Previously, as a post-doc at the University of Virginia, I studied the spatial resilience of seagrass meadows to marine heatwaves using long-term data from the Virginia Coast Reserve LTER. I completed my Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia in 2018, working with Dr. Karen McGlathery. My dissertation research combined laboratory studies, field experiments, and long-term monitoring data to explore how landscape-scale restoration of seagrass meadows affects nitrogen cycling in shallow coastal bays.

I completed a B.A. in Chemistry and History from Cornell University in 2012. As an undergraduate, I studied carbon cycling in tidal wetlands with Dr. Pat Megonigal at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Prior to attending graduate school, I worked as a field technician at the Bonanza Creek LTER, and as a policy intern at the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C.