Kerry J Nickols

Biography

Dr. Kerry Nickols is an interdisciplinary scientist and integrates ecology and oceanography to study coastal marine ecosystems. She is an Assistant Professor at California State University Northridge in the Department of Biology. She graduated with a B.A. in Integrative Biology and Earth and Planetary Science from the University of California Berkeley (2002) and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California Davis (2012; resident at UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory) where her dissertation focused on coastal oceanography and larval dispersal. She held postdoctoral positions at UC Davis studying population responses of fished species to marine protected areas and at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station where she studied bio-physical interactions in kelp forests. She was then an Assistant Professor at California State University Monterey Bay. Most of Kerry’s research centers around issues related to marine conservation such as the design and evaluation of marine protected areas (areas of the ocean with specific restrictions on human activities) and climate change. 

Research Interest

Current research projects include using population models and monitoring data to understand responses of fished populations to management actions, assessing how kelp forests and oceanographic processes shape the variability of carbon in the coastal ocean, and studying responses of lower trophic organisms to climate shifts.