Lisa Levin

Last updated
Lisa A. Levin
Alma mater Radcliffe College
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scientific career
Institutions North Carolina State University (1983-1992)
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1992-Present)
Doctoral advisor Paul K. Dayton
Website levin.ucsd.edu

Lisa A. Levin is a Distinguished Professor of biological oceanography and marine ecology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She holds the Elizabeth Hamman and Morgan Dene Oliver Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Science. She studies coastal and deep-sea ecosystems and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Levin grew up in Los Angeles. [2] She went on to complete her B.A. degree summa cum laude in Biology at Radcliffe College in 1975. [3] She joined the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for her graduate studies, earning a PhD in Oceanography from the University of California, San Diego in 1982. [3] Her PhD advisor was Paul K. Dayton. Her dissertation was on tidal flat ecology and deep-sea sediments. [3] Her postdoctoral advisors were Rudolph Scheltema and Hal Caswell at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Research

She joined North Carolina State University as an assistant professor in 1983. Levin then moved to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1992 as an associate professor. In the mid-1990s she became interested in deep-sea environments, including methane seeps and oxygen minimum zones. [4] These are the regions of ocean that were deprived of oxygen – between 200 and 1,000 metres deep with less than 90% of the surface oxygen. [3] Her work also considers the structure of vulnerable ecosystems, wetland biotic interactions and larval ecology of coastal marine populations. [5] She has worked extensively in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans using a range of deep-sea equipment including submersibles, remotely operated underwater vehicles. [6] She has participated in over 40 oceanographic expeditions. She monitored cold seep sediments, checking the interaction of fauna with flow and reporting the first review of the different size groups of organisms. [4] [7]

Together with her students, Levin has worked with a broad range of taxa, from microbes and microalgae to invertebrates, fishes and whales. Her recent research has emphasized 3 major themes: [8]

She served on the San Diego Wetlands Advisory Board. [5] She was an editor of the journal Marine Ecology and founding editorial board member of the Annual Review of Marine Science. [6] She joined the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in 2000. [9] She reported massive single-cell xenophyophores in the Mariana Trench in 2011. [10]

In 2011 she was made the director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, which she led for six years. [11] She was made the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Anton Bruun Memorial Lecturer. [5] She gave the Sverdrup Lecture at the 2012 American Geophysical Union Meeting. [5] She was made a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2013. [12] [13] She co-founded the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI), a group that seeks to integrate science, technology, policy, law and economics to advise on the management of resource use in the deep ocean in order to maintain the integrity of deep-ocean ecosystems. [14] In 2017 she founded the Deep Ocean Observing Strategy (DOOS), which outlines the requirements for future deep ocean observations. [15]

In 2016 she spoke at the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Conference. [16] She is interested in the ethical challenges of mining the deep sea for metals. [17] She was part of the 2018 World Economic Forum, speaking about the dangers of mining the deep sea bed. [18] [19] She was awarded the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) A.C. Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. [11] and the Prince Albert 1 Grand Medal in Science in 2019. She has published over 280 papers that have been cited more than 30,000 times. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine biology</span> Scientific study of organisms that live in the ocean

Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oceanography</span> Study of physical, chemical, and biological processes in the ocean

Oceanography, also known as oceanology, sea science and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; plate tectonics and seabed geology; and fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers utilize to glean further knowledge of the world ocean, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, climatology, geography, geology, hydrology, meteorology and physics. Paleoceanography studies the history of the oceans in the geologic past. An oceanographer is a person who studies many matters concerned with oceans, including marine geology, physics, chemistry, and biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrothermal vent</span> Fissure in a planets surface from which heated water emits

Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal deposits are rocks and mineral ore deposits formed by the action of hydrothermal vents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cold seep</span> Ocean floor area where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs

A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. Cold does not mean that the temperature of the seepage is lower than that of the surrounding sea water. On the contrary, its temperature is often slightly higher. The "cold" is relative to the very warm conditions of a hydrothermal vent. Cold seeps constitute a biome supporting several endemic species.

The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of 1,000 to 4,000 m below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypelagic is also known as the midnight zone because of the lack of sunlight; this feature does not allow for photosynthesis-driven primary production, preventing growth of phytoplankton or aquatic plants. Although larger by volume than the photic zone, human knowledge of the bathypelagic zone remains limited by ability to explore the deep ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abyssal plain</span> Flat area on the deep ocean floor

An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 metres. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth's surface. They are among the flattest, smoothest, and least explored regions on Earth. Abyssal plains are key geologic elements of oceanic basins.

The hadal zone, also known as the hadopelagic zone, is the deepest region of the ocean, lying within oceanic trenches. The hadal zone ranges from around 6 to 11 km below sea level, and exists in long, narrow, topographic V-shaped depressions.

Harmon Craig was an American geochemist who worked briefly for the University of Chicago (1951-1955) before spending the majority of his career at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1955-2003).

Lynne Talley is a physical oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography known for her research into the large-scale circulation of water masses in the global ocean.

Marine chemistry, also known as ocean chemistry or chemical oceanography, is influenced by plate tectonics and seafloor spreading, turbidity currents, sediments, pH levels, atmospheric constituents, metamorphic activity, and ecology. The field of chemical oceanography studies the chemistry of marine environments including the influences of different variables. Marine life has adapted to the chemistries unique to earth's oceans, and marine ecosystems are sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas</span> International multidisciplinary project that studies deep-sea ecosystems

Hotspot Ecosystem Research and Man's Impact On European Seas (HERMIONE) is an international multidisciplinary project, started in April 2009, that studies deep-sea ecosystems. HERMIONE scientists study the distribution of hotspot ecosystems, how they function and how they interconnect, partially in the context of how these ecosystems are being affected by climate change and impacted by humans through overfishing, resource extraction, seabed installations and pollution. Major aims of the project are to understand how humans are affecting the deep-sea environment and to provide policy makers with accurate scientific information, enabling effective management strategies to protect deep sea ecosystems. The HERMIONE project is funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme, and is the successor to the HERMES project, which concluded in March 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methane chimney</span>

A methane chimney or gas chimney is a rising column of natural gas, mainly methane within a water or sediment column. The contrast in physical properties between the gas phase and the surrounding water makes such chimneys visible in oceanographic and geophysical data. In some cases, gas bubbles released at the seafloor may dissolve before they reach the ocean surface, but the increased hydrocarbon concentration may still be measured by chemical oceanographic techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antje Boetius</span> German biologist (born 1967)

Antje Boetius is a German marine biologist. She is a professor of geomicrobiology at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, University of Bremen. Boetius received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in March 2009 for her study of sea bed microorganisms that affect the global climate. She is also the director of Germany's polar research hub, the Alfred Wegener Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Kastner</span> American oceanographer and geochemist (born 1935)

Miriam Kastner is a Bratislavan born, Israeli raised, American oceanographer and geochemist. Kastner is currently a distinguished professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. She is still recognized by her fundamental contributions to science and is well spoken of amongst colleagues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolfgang H. Berger</span> American paleontologist

Wolfgang "Wolf" Helmut Berger was a German-American oceanographer, geologist, micropaleontologist and emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. His research interests comprise "micropaleontology, marine sedimentation, ocean productivity, carbon cycle, ocean history, climate history, and history of oceanography."

Karen Frances Wishner is an American oceanographer currently at University of Rhode Island and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her interests include coastal shelf and zooplankton behavior and environment, and has published her findings.

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References

  1. "Lisa Levin shares her story | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  2. "Lisa Levin". University of Bergen. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Lisa Levin, deep-sea oceanographer". scicom.ucsc.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  4. 1 2 Analytics, Clarivate. "Lisa Levin on the Ecology of Cold Seep Sediments - ScienceWatch.com - Clarivate Analytics". archive.sciencewatch.com. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Lisa A. Levin Biography". Research Profiles. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  6. 1 2 "Dr. Lisa Levin | HuffPost". www.huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  7. "Ecology of cold seep sediments: Interactions of fauna with flow, chemistry and microbes". Research Profiles. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  8. "Levin Lab Web Site - Scripps Institution of Oceanography - Lisa Levin's Lab". levin.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  9. "Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission". www.ioc-unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  10. Geere, Duncan. "Massive single-celled organisms found in the Mariana Trench" . Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  11. 1 2 3 "Scripps Biological Oceanographer Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award | Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego". scripps.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  12. "2013 OS Honorees - Ocean Sciences". Ocean Sciences. 2013-12-08. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  13. Garen Checkley (2013-12-11), Lisa Levin at the geophysical awards , retrieved 2018-10-10
  14. "Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI)". Research Profiles. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  15. "Deep Ocean Observing Strategy". Research Profiles. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  16. UNESCO (2016-11-28), COP22 - Ocean and Climate Forum - Lisa Levin (Scripps Institution) , retrieved 2018-10-10
  17. University of California Television (UCTV) (2018-05-30), Seabed Mining in the Deep Sea , retrieved 2018-10-10
  18. "Authors". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
  19. "Mining the deep seabed will harm biodiversity. We need to talk about it". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2018-10-11.