Contact Information
219 Shoemaker HallUniversity of Mississippi
University, MS 38677
Phone: (662) 915-5479
ray@olemiss.edu
Ray Highsmith Professor Emeritus
Affiliations
- Executive Director of the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology
Specialties
- community ecology
- population biology
- reproduction and behavior of marine invertebrates
Research Overview
After several years of involvement with undersea research, we were successful in having NOAA's National Undersea Research program establish a major regional center in the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at UAF. The center provides support for under sea research along the West Coast, in the Arctic and in Antarctica. I work with the scientific community, other centers and the national office to promote high quality undersea research programs in our service region. My research activities involve benthic communities, which are typically very patchy. The roles of life histories and population dynamics of various potentially dominant species in structuring these communities are the focus of current research activities. Reproduction and dispersal mechanisms are of particular interest, e.g., mode, timing, larval type and behavior, dispersal phases and/or persistence at a location, settlement dynamics, and post-settlement mortality. Ongoing research includes a broad study of recruitment and population biology in the intertidal zone. In addition, I am studying population dynamics and secondary productivity of benthic amphipods preyed upon by gray whales in the northern Bering Sea. We hope to extend this work to other whale feeding areas in Soviet waters to compare amphipod life histories and secondary production at different latitudes.
Links
- Kasitsna Bay Laboratory
Kasitsna Bay is a unique resource for marine research and teaching, perhaps the best such location in Alaska and one of the best in United States. - West Coast & Polar Regions Undersea Research Center
The West Coast & Polar Regions Undersea Research Center supports highly rated, peer-reviewed proposals to conduct in situ research in the region offshore California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and the Arctic and Antarctic.