Dr. C. Mark Eakin is Coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch, an effort focused on the monitoring of coral reef ecosystems through satellite, in situ, and paleoenvironmental observations. A coral reef specialist, with a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami, Dr. Eakin has published on various topics in coral reef ecology, especially the impact of climate change and other disturbance on coral reefs. This includes El Niño impacts on eastern Pacific coral reefs in coral reef ecology and carbonate budgets, thermal stress and coral bleaching, ocean acidification, oil spills, coral paleoclimatology, and the behavior of marine organisms. He co-chairs the US Coral Reef Task Force’s Climate Change Working Group and has briefed and testified before the US Congress on climate change impacts. He is a Councillor for the International Society for Reef Studies and member and advisor to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
Here is my piece of CAKE. My main research interest is adaptation to climate change in water management. Based at the Centre for Water and Climate of Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, my research is firmly rooted in the global change community branching out into institutional as well as biophysical aspect. My work seeks to identify robust land and water management strategies and opportunities to implement these strategies at the regional scale. My scientific background in water management, climate adaptation, environmental sciences and experimental physics is complemented by practical experience, working in the national government and the private sector.
Gita’s focus with The Conservancy is on helping land managers identify and fill their biological information needs and tie this information back into decision making. A major part of this work has been partnering with the Bureau of Land Management to design more informative and efficient ecological monitoring for the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area near Tucson, AZ.
Gita got her start as an Ecologist as a child in the woods of northern New Mexico. She has been active in conservation of the Sky Island-Apache Highlands region since 1993, doing teaching, outreach, policy, and science work with several schools and non-profits. Her Ph.D. research on biodiversity and systematics of tropical jumping spiders indulged her love of the little things that run the planet and taught her to make the most of limited data about an unlimited world.
I am a project-related and research field botanist for the U.S. Forest Service specializing in plant taxonomy and plant ecology with an emphasis on conservation biology issues.
I direct the freshwater climate change program at Conservation International.
I work on freshwater climate adaptation policy, practice, and adaptation science. I also run http://climatechangewater.org and http://AdaptationAction.org.
Coordinator for the EBM Tools Network
I am a forest ecologist currently working on the incorporation of climate change adaptation concepts into land management planning.
