About

Professor David Kimbro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences at Northeastern University. His research interests encompass a broad range of issues in population dynamics, community ecology, invasion biology, ecosystem science, and coastal oceanography. He pursues these interests to understand why the conditions of important coastal habitats change and to learn how these changes impact services to society. His work is associated with the Coastal Sustainability Institute and the Marine Science Center, where he contributes to advancing scientific knowledge and addressing environmental challenges related to coastal ecosystems.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Social Science
• Geology
• Linguistics
• Oceanography
• Fishery
• Environmental science

Selected publications

• Review for "Are human super-predators always super-scary? A meta-analysis of wild animal behavioural responses to human interactions"

  2025-09-30

  peer-review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Increases in salinity variability harm both oysters and their predators, offsetting predicted effects on population dynamics

  Journal of Animal Ecology · 2025-11-20

  article

  Projecting the effects of future climate conditions for predator-prey systems can be challenging, because species' environmental tolerances can differ and both environmental reaction norms and predator functional responses are nonlinear. We addressed this issue in the context of Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in the Gulf of Mexico, USA. Oysters are an ecologically and economically important estuarine species threatened by a variety of stressors including prolonged exposure to extremely low or high salinity. In this region, a major oyster predator, the southern oyster drill (Stramonita haemostoma) thrives at high salinity and is impaired by low salinity. As estuarine salinity becomes more variable (e.g. more regional droughts leading to prolonged high-salinity conditions), one might expect drill predation to become more intense, as when high salinity led to a predator-driven oyster population collapse in Apalachicola Bay, FL in 2012. To test that expectation, we simulated the dynamics of a two-species integral projection model with salinity-dependent demography for both species, including size-structured and salinity-dependent predator feeding behaviour, based on laboratory experiments. We forced the model with simulated salinity time series that matched the climatology and autocorrelation structure of historical salinity in Apalachicola Bay, but with increased standard deviation, reflecting the range of increased variability in regional precipitation over future decades predicted by global climate models. Surprisingly, the model predicted that the expected range of increased salinity variability had little effect on oyster abundance or the probability of quasi-extinction. A sensitivity analysis revealed that this was because the negative effects of salinity variability on oysters were mostly balanced out by the inhibition of drill predation by low-salinity anomalies. Additionally, the negative effects of increasing salinity variability could be counteracted by increasing drill mortality (such as by manual culling). This analysis illustrates the importance of accounting for environmentally dependent species interactions when forecasting climate-driven changes to population dynamics.

  PublisherDOI

• Coastal resident's perceptions and attitudes of the visual impacts of oyster aquaculture cultivation methods along the Atlantic coast of the US

  Ocean & Coastal Management · 2025-10-07 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  The aesthetic and recreational values of coastal marine ecosystems are important factors contributing to coastal residents’ overall health and well-being. Consequently, proposed changes to these landscapes—such as shellfish aquaculture—can face opposition from stakeholders with strong personal and emotional attachments to coastal environments. Incorporating public perceptions into aquaculture planning may help define the acceptable scale and scope of development, reducing the likelihood of conflict. To assess attitudes and perceptions of cultivation methods and gear used in shellfish aquaculture, we surveyed residents along the Eastern United States (US) coast using an online survey through Qualtrics panels. Our findings revealed that coastal residents preferred aquaculture gear with lower visual impacts; however, residents with higher aquaculture knowledge and familiarity with gear types had more favorable perceptions and exhibited relatively equal preferences for all gear types regardless of their vertical relief in the water column. Furthermore, participants who spent more time on the shoreline or in coastal waters gave higher visual scores for cultivation methods and exhibited greater familiarity and knowledge of aquaculture than those who spent less time on the water. These findings have important management implications, as they can help inform both aquaculture farmers and coastal managers on how to mitigate potential conflict with future farm siting and permitting. Farms that utilize gear with limited impacts on the aesthetic and recreational value while maximizing potential environmental benefits are likely to increase synergy between farm operations, ecosystem health, and the well-being of coastal residents, especially in areas with higher potential for user conflict.

  PublisherDOI

• Machine learning reveals hierarchical spatial patterns in salt marsh ditching along U.S. Atlantic Coast

  Research Square · 2025-04-29

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Author response for "Population and community consequences of perceived risk from humans in wildlife"

  2024-05-02

  peer-review
  PublisherDOI

• Increasing duration of heatwaves poses a threat to oyster sustainability in the Gulf of Mexico

  Ecological Indicators · 2024-04-11 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  The future of the wild oyster fishery in the northern Gulf of Mexico is largely uncertain due to changing environmental conditions and declining abundance of harvestable oysters. Specifically, rising temperatures can directly impact the physiological thresholds of the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) at all life history stages and alter the narrow ecological niche this oyster occupies. The impact of rising temperatures is likely most pronounced during atmospheric heatwaves, defined as three or more days above the 90th percentile of daily maximum air temperatures, which have been shown to be increasing in frequency. Increasing exposure to high temperature extremes may contribute to and exacerbate an already declining oyster fishery. Critical to fishery health is recruitment i.e., the addition of new harvestable biomass, which is a dynamic process strongly driven by temperature. Here, we examine the relationship between heatwave characteristics and the prediction of poor oyster recruitment, measured as the abundance of post-larval oysters (e.g. spat) below the site-specific median density observed in historically productive oyster fisheries over 46-years (1976 – 2020) in Mobile Bay, Alabama and 21-years (1993 – 2014) in Apalachicola Bay, Florida. We acquired daily maximum air temperature measurements measured over 50 years (1970 – 2020) at weather monitoring stations adjacent to the bays to identify site specific annual heatwave events (maximum yearly air temperature, yearly and consecutive heatwave days, and number of annual heatwaves). Then, years with extreme heatwaves that exceeded the 75th percentile for the 50-year measurements were compared to years with non-extreme heatwave events. Years with extreme total heatwave days and extreme consecutive heatwave days were correlated with low post-larval oyster density. Across both bay systems, if consecutive heatwave days exceeded 11 days, then poor recruitment of oysters occurred 83 % of the time. Extreme heatwave duration as an indicator for poor recruitment has the potential to be a powerful tool for fishery managers to forecast recruitment and inform sustainable oyster harvest based on year-to-year variability in heatwave duration and long-term warming trends. Our findings illustrate how extreme temperatures can exacerbate multiple physiological and ecological stressors resulting in the loss of a keystone species for healthy and resilient coastal ecosystems.

  PublisherDOI

• Author response for "Population and community consequences of perceived risk from humans in wildlife"

  2024-03-06

  peer-review
  PublisherDOI

• Population and community consequences of perceived risk from humans in wildlife

  Ecology Letters · 2024-06-01 · 31 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Human activities catalyse risk avoidance behaviours in wildlife across taxa and systems. However, the broader ecological significance of human‐induced risk perception remains unclear, with a limited understanding of how phenotypic responses scale up to affect population or community dynamics. We present a framework informed by predator–prey ecology to predict the occurrence of non‐consumptive effects (NCE) and trait‐mediated indirect effects (TMIE) of anthropogenic disturbances. We report evidence from a comprehensive review of the different types of human‐induced behavioural and physiological phenotypic changes and their influence on vital rates and population parameters in wildlife. Evidence for human‐induced NCEs and TMIEs is mixed, with half of published studies finding a relationship between human activities, phenotypic change and population outcomes. The net effects of anthropogenic NCEs and TMIEs depend on the mismatch between the phenotypic response and the lethality of human activity. However, strong research biases in taxa, systems, human disturbance types and demographic measures prevent unified inference about the prevalence of population responses to human activities. Coexistence with and conservation of wildlife requires additional research linking human‐induced phenotypic change to population and community outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Epibiosis by Florida Crown Conch (Melongena corona) on Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in a Northern Florida Estuary

  Southeastern Naturalist · 2024-12-10

  articleSenior author

  We report the first observations of Melongena corona (Florida Crown Conch) as an epibiont attached to the carapace of juvenile Chelonia mydas (Green Sea Turtle). The Florida Crown Conch is a carnivorous marine gastropod found in benthic intertidal communities along the coast of Florida, southeastern Alabama, and parts of the Caribbean. Florida Crown Conchs have also been associated with declines in the oyster reefs in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR), where both our observations were reported. Northeast Florida's Crown Conch population is described as expanding northward in the estuary since 2010. As such, we propose that Green Turtles may be facilitating the northern expansion of the Florida Crown Conch, which would be an important dynamic to account for when designing and implementing conservation, restoration, and aquaculture programs for shellfish areas north of the GTMNERR.

  PublisherDOI

• Addressing constraints to shellfish aquaculture through quantifying public perceptions and attitudes along the Atlantic coast of the US

  Ocean & Coastal Management · 2024-04-15 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Despite the social, economic, and ecological benefits that shellfish aquaculture provides, there are significant barriers to expansion of the aquaculture industry as a result of possible environmental impacts (real or perceived) and social concerns from coastal communities. Coastal residents may perceive aquaculture as a nuisance, and the sentiment of not in my backyard (NIMBYism) is a common response and potential barrier to proposed increases in local shellfish aquaculture operations. To better understand these societal concerns and determine the potential drivers behind perceptions of oyster aquaculture, we surveyed coastal communities along the Eastern US using an online survey through Qualtrics panels. Most coastal residents indicated that they would support aquaculture expansion; however, residents who perceived oyster aquaculture as beneficial to their local economy were more supportive of expansion, whereas those who perceived oyster aquaculture as harmful to it were less likely to support expansion. These findings have important management implications as they can help inform managers on how to effectively engage with the public and better support industry and community relations. Furthermore, they could help inform how policies, practices, and education could change perceptions of aquaculture stakeholders, including coastal residents, and thereby the future of the aquaculture industry in the US.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: RAPID: Quantifying mechanisms by which Hurricane Michael facilitates a stable-state reversal on oyster reefs

  NSF · $56k · 2019–2020

• Collaborative Research: the influence of predators on community structure and resultant ecosystem functioning at a biogeographic scale

  NSF · $301k · 2010–2013

• Collaborative research: Quantifying the influence of nonconsumptive predator effects on prey population dynamics

  NSF · $629k · 2018–2022

• Collaborative Research: the influence of predators on community structure and resultant ecosystem functioning at a biogeographic scale

  NSF · $84k · 2013–2014

Frequent coauthors

• A. Randall Hughes

  Northeastern University

  37 shared

• Jonathan H. Grabowski

  Northeastern University

  27 shared

• J. Wilson White

  Oregon State University

  24 shared

• Edwin D. Grosholz

  University of California, Davis

  17 shared

• Christopher D. Stallings

  University of South Florida St. Petersburg

  14 shared

• Timothy J. Pusack

  Oregon State University

  14 shared

• Michael F. Piehler

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  14 shared

• James E. Byers

  13 shared

Education

• Public Health, Public Health

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1998