Peter T Raimondi

About

Peter T Raimondi is a Professor in the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department within the Science Division at UC Santa Cruz. His research broadly aims to understand the factors that influence the development and maintenance of biological communities, with a focus on marine systems. He employs two main methodological approaches: field observations of populations and community structures to generate hypotheses, which are then tested through short-term field and laboratory experiments; and the comparison of community dynamics during experimentation with long-term community patterns to assess the generality of mechanisms. His recent work addresses patterns, mechanisms, and consequences of dispersal variability, particularly using Macrocystis pyrifera (giant kelp) as a model species. Raimondi has made significant progress in modeling dispersal and predicting the impacts of dispersal variability. Additionally, he tests hypotheses derived from analytical models through field experiments. His research also encompasses applied ecology, especially in systems affected by human impacts, and he is committed to involving students in applied ecological problems. His current research interests include the roles of oceanographic forcing, propagule dispersal, and post-settlement mechanisms in benthic community development, as well as the patterns and mechanisms of self-fertilization in organisms with short-range dispersal and complex life histories, the stability of marine communities, and…

Research topics

• Ecology
• Geology
• Biology
• Environmental science
• Oceanography
• Pathology
• Medicine
• Geography
• Virology
• Environmental protection

Selected publications

• Estimating blue carbon sequestration under coastal management scenarios

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2021 · 71 citations

  DOI

• Evidence That Microorganisms at the Animal-Water Interface Drive Sea Star Wasting Disease

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2021 · 59 citations

  solubility, in more rugose asteroid species due to restricted hydrodynamic flow, and in larger specimens due to their lower surface area to volume ratios which affects diffusive respiratory potential.

  DOI

• Models with environmental drivers offer a plausible mechanism for the rapid spread of infectious disease outbreaks in marine organisms

  Scientific Reports · 2020 · 51 citations

  The first signs of sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic occurred in just few months in 2013 along the entire North American Pacific coast. Disease dynamics did not manifest as the typical travelling wave of reaction-diffusion epidemiological model, suggesting that other environmental factors might have played some role. To help explore how external factors might trigger disease, we built a coupled oceanographic-epidemiological model and contrasted three hypotheses on the influence of tempera…

  DOI

• Biogeography of ocean acidification: Differential field performance of transplanted mussels to upwelling-driven variation in carbonate chemistry

  PLoS ONE · 2020 · 16 citations

  Ocean acidification (OA) represents a serious challenge to marine ecosystems. Laboratory studies addressing OA indicate broadly negative effects for marine organisms, particularly those relying on calcification processes. Growing evidence also suggests OA combined with other environmental stressors may be even more deleterious. Scaling these laboratory studies to ecological performance in the field, where environmental heterogeneity may mediate responses, is a critical next step toward understan…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Limited genomic signatures of population collapse in the critically endangered black abalone ( <i>Haliotis cracherodii</i> )

  Molecular Ecology · 2024-04-29 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  The black abalone, Haliotis cracherodii, is a large, long-lived marine mollusc that inhabits rocky intertidal habitats along the coast of California and Mexico. In 1985, populations were impacted by a bacterial disease known as withering syndrome (WS) that wiped out >90% of individuals, leading to the closure of all U.S. black abalone fisheries since 1993. Current conservation strategies include restoring diminished populations by translocating healthy individuals. However, population collapse o…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: The effect of inbreeding on metapopulation dynamics of the giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera

  NSF · $350k · 2012–2017

• Collaborative Proposal: Selection and Genetic Succession in the Intertidal -- Population Genomics of Pisaster ochraceus During a Wasting Disease Outbreak and its Aftermath

  NSF · $239k · 2017–2021

• Collaborative Research: Mechanisms of resistance and resilience to system-wide loss of a keystone predator in an iconic intertidal community

  NSF · $693k · 2017–2021

Frequent coauthors

• S. Guiducci

  Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati

  77 shared

• M. Zobov

  Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati

  73 shared

• R. Siemann

  71 shared

• D. Walz

  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  69 shared

• M. Boscolo

  Frascati Scienza

  68 shared

• F.-J. Decker

  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

  65 shared

• Mark Hogan

  62 shared

• C. Milardi

  56 shared

Awards & honors

• NSF
• The David and Lucille Packard Foundation
• The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
• Minerals Management Service
• Sea Grant

Similar researchers at University of California, Santa Cruz

• Beth Alison Shapiroh-89
• Auston Marmaduke Kilpatrickh-83
• John N Thompsonh-78