Andrew Thompson

Research Interests:

Population and community ecology of marine fish and invertebrates

Population genetics and connectivity of marine species

Early life history of marine species

Education:

• B.S., Biology, University of Southern California, 1993
• M.S., Stream Ecology, University of Georgia, 1998
• Ph.D., Marine Ecology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003

Selected Publications:

• Thompson AR, 2005. Dynamics of demographically open mutualists: immigration, intraspecific competition, and predation impact goby populations. Oecologia, 143:61-69.
• Thompson AR, Thacker CE and Shaw EY 2005. Phylogeography of marine mutualists: Parallel patterns of genetic structure between obligate goby and shrimp partners. Molecular Ecology, 14:3557-3572.
• Thompson AR, Schmitt RJ and Nisbet RM 2006. Dynamics of mutualistic populations with open life histories. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75:1239-1251.
• Thacker CE, Thompson AR, Roje DM, and Shaw EY, 2008. New expansions in old clades: population genetics and phylogeny of Gnatholepis species (Teleostei: Godiodei) in the Pacific. Marine Biology, 153: 375-385.

Additional Information:

The overarching theme of my research is to better understand why the distribution and abundance of aquatic species varies through space and time.   Over my career I pursued this general topic in multiple ecosystems.  First, for my MS research at the University of Georgia I examined how abiotic and biotic factors affect the distribution and abundance of a stream fish in the southern Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, USA.   Next, my Ph.D. research at the University of California, Santa Barbara focused on the population ecology of mutualistic gobies and shrimps that reside on tropical coral reefs.  I utilized a combination of field surveys, field experiments, and mathematical modeling to elucidate forces affecting this system.  I expanded my research on the goby-shrimp mutualism during my post-doctoral research at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.  Here, I used genetic tools to evaluate 1) connectivity of goby and shrimp populations over ecological and geological time scales and 2) the evolution of this mutualism.  After my post-doc I spent three years at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service where, among other projects, I 1) studied the population dynamics of a federally threatened stream fish, the Santa Ana sucker, in the highly urbanized Santa Ana River, CA and 2) designed monitoring programs for endangered species covered by large scale Habitat Conservation Plans in Southern California.  At present, I am a research fisheries biologist in the ichthyoplankton laboratory at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, CA.  I am examining larvae collected along the Pacific coast of North America to better understand the status and early life history of marine fish and invertebrates.      

Curriculum Vitae File