Fiorenza Micheli
Assistant Professor
Hopkins Marine Station
Stanford University
Oceanview Blvd
Pacific Grove, CA 93950

Tel: (831) 655-6250
Fax: (831) 375-0793
Email:
Web page: http://www-marine.stanford.edu/HMSweb/micheli.html

Education
Ph.D., Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995
B.Sc., Natural Sciences, University of Florence, Italy, 1988

  Research Interests
Fiorenza Micheli, a marine community ecologist, is interested in how species interactions and habitat-organism relationships shape marine communities, in investigating human impacts on coastal marine communities, and in incorporating this understanding in the management and conservation of marine ecosystems, particularly the design and evaluation of marine protected areas. With the Bahamas Biocomplexity Project, she is focusing on the feedbacks and interactions between different components of the Bahamanian archipelago marine ecosystem. Her particular research is focused on establishing links between habitat quality and the structure and diversity of benthic and fish assemblages, examining relationships among different functional groups of organisms, and developing dynamic models for reserve site selection. The work includes field surveys of marine habitat and benthic communities at multiple sites in order to describe patterns of diversity and community structure at varying spatial scales. In the last three years of the project, she will conduct modeling studies that incorporate different criteria and constraints in the design of networks of marine protected areas and examine possible effects of population dynamics of focal species, and variation in habitat quality and community structure. This work has been conducted in collaboration with Carrie Kappel, who was a doctoral student at Stanford University, and with Steven Litvin, a postdoctoral researcher also based at Stanford.

Selected Publications
Harborne A.R., P.J. Mumby, C.V. Kappel, C.P. Dahlgren, F. Micheli, K.E. Holmes, and D.R. Brumbaugh. In Press. Tropical coastal habitats as surrogates of fish community structure, grazing, and fisheries value. Ecological Applications.

Harborne, A.R., P.J. Mumby, C.V. Kappel, C.P. Dahlgren, F. Micheli, K.E. Holmes, J.N. Sanchirico, K. Broad, I.A. Elliott, and D.R. Brumbaugh. 2008. Reserve effects and natural variation in coral reef communities. Journal of Applied Ecology 45: 1010-1018.

Baskett, M.L., F. Micheli, and S.A. Levin. 2007. Designing marine reserves for interacting species: insights from theory. Biological Conservation 137: 163-179. [PDF]

Mumby, P.J., A.R. Harborne, J. Williams, C.V. Kappel, D.R. Brumbaugh, F. Micheli, K.E. Holmes, C.P. Dahlgren, C.B. Paris, and P.G. Blackwell. 2007. Trophic cascade facilitates coral recruitment in a marine reserve. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(20): 8362-8367. [PDF]

Mumby, P.J., C.P. Dahlgren, A.R. Harborne, C.V. Kappel, F. Micheli, D.R. Brumbaugh, K.E. Holmes, J.M. Mendes, K. Broad, J.N. Sanchirico, K. Buch, S. Box, R.W. Stoffle, and A.B. Gill. 2006. Fishing, trophic cascades, and the process of grazing on coral reefs. Science 311: 98-101.

Mumby, P.J., F. Micheli, C.P. Dahlgren, S.Y. Litvin, A.B. Gill, D.R. Brumbaugh, K. Broad, J.N. Sanchirico, C.V. Kappel, A.R. Harborne, and K.E. Holmes. 2006. Marine parks need sharks? Response to letter. Science 312: 527-528.

Harborne, A.R., P.J. Mumby, F. Micheli, C.T. Perry, C.P. Dahlgren, K.E. Holmes, and D.R. Brumbaugh. 2006. The functional value of Caribbean coral reef, seagrass and mangrove habitats to ecosystem processes. Advances in Marine Biology 50: 57-190.

Armsworth, P.R., C.V. Kappel, F. Micheli, and E.P. Bjorkstedt. 2006. Working seascapes: biodiversity conservation and the protection of endangered species in marine ecosystems. In: J.M. Scott, D.D. Goble, and F.W. Davis (eds.), The Endangered Species Act at thirty: Conserving biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes. Volume 2. Island Press, Washington D.C.

Armsworth, P.R., C.V. Kappel, F. Micheli, and E.P. Bjorkstedt. 2006. Marine species. In: D.D. Goble, J.M. Scott, and F. W. Davis (eds.), The Endangered Species Act at thirty: Renewing the conservation promise. Volume 1. Island Press, Washington D.C.

Micheli, F., L. Benedetti-Cecchi, S. Gambaccini, I. Bertocci, C. Borsini, G. C. Osio, and F. Romano. 2005. Cascading human impacts, marine protected areas, and the structure of Mediterranean reef assemblages. Ecological Monographs 75: 81-102.

Micheli, F., and B.S. Halpern. 2005. Low functional redundancy in coastal marine assemblages. Ecology Letters 8(4): 391-400.

Pandolfi, J. M., N. Baron, R. H. Bradbury, H. M. Guzmán, T. P. Hughes, C. V. Kappel, F. Micheli, J. C. Ogden, H. P. Possingham, E. Sala, and J. B. C. Jackson. 2005. Are US coral reefs on the slippery slope to slime? Science 307: 1725-1726.

Jackson, J.B.C., J.C. Ogden, J.M. Pandolfi, N. Baron, R.H. Bradbury, H.M. Guzman, T.P. Hughes, C.V. Kappel, F. Micheli, H. P. Possingham, and E. Sala. 2005. Reassessing US coral reefs - Response. Science 308: 1741-1742.

Palmer, M.A., E. Bernhardt, E. Chorneski, S.L. Collins, A. Dobson, C. Duke, B. Gold, R. Jacobson, S. Kingsland, R. Kranz, M. Mappin, M. L. Martinez, F. Micheli, J. Morse, M. Pace, M. Pascual, S. Palumbi, J. Reichman, A. L. Simons, A. Townsend, and M. Turner. 2004. Ecology for a Crowded Planet. Science 304: 1251-1252.

Micheli, F., B.S. Halpern, L.W. Botsford, and R.R. Warner. 2004. Trajectories and correlates of community change in no-take marine reserves. Ecological Applications 14: 1709-1723.

Micheli, F., A. Amarasekare, J. Bascompte, and L.R. Gerber. 2004. Including species interactions in the design and evaluation of marine reserves: some insights from a predator-prey model. Bulletin of Marine Science, Special issue on "Confronting Trade-offs in the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management". 74(3): 653-669.

Botsford, L.W., F. Micheli, and A. Hastings. 2003. Principles for the design of marine reserves. Ecological Applications 13(Supp.): 25-31. [PDF]

Micheli, F., G.A. Polis, P.D. Boersma, M.A. Hixon, E.A. Norse, P.V.R. Snelgrove, and M.E. Soulé. 2001. Human alteration of food webs: research priorities for conservation and management. In: M.E. Soulé and G.H. Orians (eds.), Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade. 2nd edition. Island Press, Washington, D.C.

Micheli, F. 1999. Eutrophication, fisheries, and consumer-resource dynamics in marine pelagic ecosystems. Science 285: 1396-1398.

Micheli, F. and C.H. Peterson. 1999. Estuarine vegetated habitats as corridors for predator movements. Conservation Biology 13: 869-881.