It all started when…

I’m born and raised in Los Angeles, California where I developed a love for marine ecosystems. Growing up in LA the most exposure I had to ocean ecosystems was through places like the Aquarium of the Pacific and the California Science Center. The experiences I had at these places left a lasting curiosity in me that drove me to want to keep studying and exploring marine systems.

Despite the many twists and turns my educational and professional journeys have taken I always ended up back on track to pursue a career in the marine sciences. During the summer after I transferred I had my first internship where I learned about high-throughput library preparation needed for molecular barcoding at the Kenkel Lab. I continued to build my background in marine genomics at the Barber Lab at UCLA where I looked at the presence of toxic dinoflagellates across islands in French Polynesia. I also took my first GIS class which I didn’t have a great time in but left me with a positive outlook on what the software could do, especially within marine science.

Currently, I plan on combining these powerful tools to better understand drivers of changes in coastal marine systems.

My research...

I’m interested in analyzing how changes within land-sea interactions affect higher trophic predators such as large mobile predators such as sharks, jacks and groupers that are key to maintaining healthy reefs and are integral to tropical food webs. The extent to which their presence is impacted by land-sea stressors within reef habitat is understudied within greater changes in tropical reef ecosystems as stressors increase over time. I want to emphasize how these interactions differ in and outside of marine managed areas across gradients of terrestrial influence.

Contact me…

Email:

jreque@hawaii.edu

Address:

Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
PO Box 1346 (for US Postal Service)
46-007 Lilipuna Road (For all other carriers)
Kaneohe, HI 96744 USA