Current Research Interests
--Confirmation and identification of gorgonian species present in the California Bight, utilizing the Research Collection at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History as a base (the repository for nearly the entire collection of Cnidaria from the Allan Hancock Foundation and all Velero expeditions), supplemented with ongoing examinations of specimens housed elsewhere: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography Collection, the California Academy of Sciences Research Collection and the extensive collection at the Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History.
--Full survey, identification and confirmation of gorgonian species, and distributional range of those species, in the eastern Pacific along the Baja coast, Mexican mainland, and southern shores of Central and South America, based upon the research collection at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and collection events being undertaken by Southern California Sanitation District staff as well as other institutions/organizations (NOAA, Aquarium of the Pacific—Long Beach) that periodically collect off the southern coast of California or the coasts of Upper Baja.
--A review of the genus Thesea as present in the eastern Pacific (California and Upper Baja).
--A complete re-examination of species in the genus Swiftia in the northeastern Pacific, ranging from the Bering Sea, Alaska to Southern California.
--Descriptions of new species, found in waters ranging from Alaska to Southern California to Baja, Mexico to New Zealand.
--Gaining an understanding of the environmental plasticity of gorgonian corals and their ecological roles in the ecosystems where they are found.
