The Coastal Oceanography Group (COG)

Kerry J. Nickols University of California, Davis Graduate Group in Ecology Bodega Marine Laboratory P.O. Box 247, 2099 Westside Road Bodega Bay, CA 94923 USA Phone: (707) 875-1942 Email:  kjnickols@ucdavis.edu B.A. University of California, Berkeley, Integrative Biology and Earth and Planetary Science, 2002.

Research Interests:
Although marine ecologists have developed ideas and theories surrounding the importance of recruitment on marine populations and communities, the dispersal stage of many marine organisms is still a black box.  In order to understand larval ecology and connections between benthic organisms and their larval stage, we must develop a better understanding of the oceanographic connections between the nearshore and offshore. I am interested in the effects of topography on nearshore currents, as a potential mechanism for larval retention and transport.   

Specifically, I am studying the Coastal Boundary Layer, a region of attenuated flow due to the presence of the coastline and changes in bathymetry.  My field work is concentrated in the inner inner inner shelf along the California coast, measuring water velocity as a function of distance from shore and depth.  I am also working on a particle dispersion model, which will explore the effects of the Coastal Boundary Layer on larval dispersal.

< Coastal Oceanography Group