Sasha is a postdoctoral fellow advised by Colleen Durkin. She earned her Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of California Santa Barbara, partially funded by a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellowship through the Office of Naval Research. Sasha also holds a B.A. in Earth & Oceanographic Science and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My work focuses on characterizing phytoplankton communities across spatiotemporal scales and considering the implications of changing phytoplankton community composition for the biological carbon pump. I investigate phytoplankton community composition using a combination of remote sensing and in situ methods. By linking phytoplankton properties (taxonomy, size, etc.) to ocean color, my work aims to describe changes in surface ocean phytoplankton communities from space. This approach also requires a thorough understanding of in situ phytoplankton community composition, measured from varied methods including pigments, cell imaging, flow cytometry, and DNA amplicon sequencing.

My postdoctoral work in the Carbon Flux Ecology lab will link phytoplankton community composition throughout the upper water column to carbon export and ecosystem function. By combining surface ocean measurements with sediment trap data, I will consider the impact of phytoplankton diversity on pathways for export, marine food webs, and ecosystem productivity.