Masami Fujiwara

About

Masami Fujiwara received his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in 2002. He has a background in Biological Sciences from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he completed his undergraduate studies, and also holds a Master’s degree in Marine Biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Fujiwara joined Texas A&M University in 2009 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology. His research focuses on the integration of ecological theories, modern data analysis methods, and existing data to determine the drivers of population fluctuations and to develop predictive models for natural populations. He has made significant contributions to the development of the undergraduate curriculum for the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, serving as the chair of the curriculum development committee in 2020. Fujiwara teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in population ecology and has received over $2 million in external research funding from sources including the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He is a member of the editorial board of PLoS One and has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles in prominent journals such as Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of…

Research topics

• Ecology
• Geography
• Biology
• Fishery
• Environmental science
• Oceanography
• Geology
• Demography

Selected publications

• Changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of fish communities after catastrophic habitat alteration caused by construction of Three Gorges Dam

  Ecology and Evolution · 2020 · 35 citations

  Habitat alterations that result from anthropogenic disturbance impact both the abiotic and biotic conditions of ecosystems, causing changes in biodiversity in many parts of the world. Recently, the use of functional diversity has been suggested as an approach to better evaluate the effects of such disturbance on particular communities. Here, we investigated the temporal changes in species and functional diversities of fish communities in the downstream area of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) before,…

  DOI

• Climate effects on fish diversity in the subtropical bays of Texas

  Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science · 2020 · 26 citations

  DOI

• Life‐history traits and temporal patterns in the incidence of coastal fishes experiencing tropicalization

  Ecosphere · 2022 · 23 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Climate change is causing shifts in the geographic distributions of coastal fish species toward higher latitudes. However, local fish communities found in higher latitudes today are not simply those found in lower latitudes in the past because the sensitivity of species to various environmental conditions is different. Responses of fish to environmental conditions differ depending on their life‐history traits such as the maximum population growth rate, age of maturity, and generation ti…

  PublisherDOI

• Climate change linked to functional homogenization of a subtropical estuarine system

  Ecology and Evolution · 2022-04-01 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access

  Climate change causes marine species to shift and expand their distributions, often leading to changes in species diversity. While increased biodiversity is often assumed to confer positive benefits on ecosystem functioning, many examples have shown that the relationship is specific to the ecosystem and function studied and is often driven by functional composition and diversity. In the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, tropical species expansion was shown to have increased estuarine fish and inverte…

  PublisherDOI

• The impact of dams on the population viability of a migratory fish in the Yangtze River, China

  Aquatic Conservation Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems · 2022-08-12 · 13 citations

  article

  Abstract The global diversity of freshwater fish has been greatly reduced as a result of human alteration. In the Yangtze River, China, the species composition has changed hugely owing to dam construction and overfishing. However, insufficient data have prevented the status of several fish species being evaluated, including that of largemouth bronze gudgeon ( Coreius guichenoti ), which is a commercially important endemic species. This study describes the effects of the Xiangjia Dam on populatio…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Effects of physical environmental conditions on the species distribution and composition of marine fish and invertebrates along the Texas coast

  NSF · $209k · 2017–2021

Frequent coauthors

• K. Ida

  National Institute for Fusion Science

  84 shared

• O. Motojima

  Chubu University

  81 shared

• K. Matsuoka

  Saitama University

  73 shared

• H. Idei

  Kyushu University

  72 shared

• S. Kubo

  71 shared

• A. Sagara

  67 shared

• K. Toi

  65 shared

• H. Iguchi

  Kyoto University

  63 shared

Education

• B.S., Biological Sciences

  University of Alaska Fairbanks

• M.S., Marine Biology

  University of Alaska Fairbanks

• Ph.D., Biological Oceanography

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program

Similar researchers at Texas A&M University

• William E. Granth-44
• Rusty Feaginh-35
• Perry Barbozah-32