I’m a quantitative ecologist using data science, modeling, and synthetic approaches to solve interdisciplinary environmental problems, particularly in the sea. Ultimately, I aim to improve how humans understand, manage, and use nature. Most of my research investigates marine biogeographic patterns and ecological processes, how human influences are reshaping them, and how well their dynamics can be predicted with models. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prospective lab members can learn more about opportunities here.
Although research is my focus, I am continually striving to translate science into action. As a postdoc, I collaborated with managers and fishermen through the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. Before starting my PhD, I worked for two years at the Environmental Defense Fund as a High Meadows Fellow. I’ve also served on CESAB and SNAPP working groups, aimed at synthesizing ecological information to advance biodiversity conservation and human well-being. I am always open to collaboration, particularly via partnerships that emphasize sustaining nature and people.
I’m committed to science communication and open science. I am on the Board of Directors of the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Steering Committee for FISHGLOB. All of the code for my published research, as well as numerous coding tutorials I developed, can be viewed on GitHub. I’ve also spoken to broad audiences of R users about ecology and environmental science. Links to watch those presentations and some other recorded talks can be found on this site.
When I’m not at my desk, I can usually be found at the farmer’s market or doing community service. I’ve previously volunteered in mentoring at-risk youth in Trenton, NJ, street medicine for the homeless and uninsured, mountain rescue, emergency medical services, and outdoor education for people of all abilities, to name a few.
PhD, Environmental Science and Management, 2020
University of California Santa Barbara
BA, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2012
Princeton University
My publications are listed on my Google Scholar and ResearchGate pages. Feel free to contact me for PDFs of any publications. You can download my CV here.
I study ecological processes and biogeographical patterns, in the context of human impacts. While I focus on oceans, I often test concepts developed on land in marine systems; I think working across realms helps to understand the universality of ecological theories and conservation approaches. The core themes of my research program are described below.
Species around the globe are shifting their ranges in response to climate change, reshuffling ecosystems and challenging paradigms of natural management. Yet species’ range shifts are highly variable, perhaps because many ecological and environmental processes besides climate also influence species distributions. Without understanding these other processes and how they interact with one another and with climate, it’s difficult to predict range shifts and make management recommendations. I work to advance our mechanistic understanding of processes that govern species distributions in the Anthropocene, and consequently, our ability to forecast those distributions. Some specific past, present, and future research topics in this vein include:
Climate change may transform ecosystems through not only the “press” of gradual warming but also the “pulse” of extreme events like heatwaves. I led research finding that demersal marine fish communities do not exhibit a consistent response to marine heatwaves (Fredston et al. 2023)–surprising, given the dramatic effects marine heatwaves have had in shallower ecosystems such as coral reefs and kelp forests. Next, I plan to explore the mechanisms driving ecological responses to marine heatwaves to understand why some heatwaves are much more damaging than others.
While my research program centers on climate change, sustainable oceans require managing other human impacts, including runoff and fishing. Runoff – the direct influx of sediments, nutrients, and other forms of pollution carried to coastal oceans from rivers – directly threatens sensitive habitats that are crucial to biodiversity conservation, like coral reefs and seagrass beds. I have participated in numerous collaborations that worked to provide operational tools for land-sea management, particularly in data-limited settings (Brown et al. 2019, Fredston-Hermann et al. 2016).
Well-managed fisheries could provide protein with a low greenhouse gas footprint to billions of people and support livelihoods in countless coastal communities. Unfortunately, many fisheries in the world are associated with problematic social or ecological outcomes – or both. I engage with fisheries both through primary research and through collaboration and outreach with stakeholders. For example, I collaborated with economists to demonstrate that the biogeographical dynamics of high-value fishery target species like tunas influence whether it is profitable to harvest them to extinction (Burgess et al. 2017).
To meet planetary challenges, we need to – as Dr. Julia Stewart Lowndes and friends put it – do “better science in less time”. I work to implement best practices for open and reproducible science in my research. Beyond my lab, I’ve contributed extensively to collaborations aimed at making it easier for my field to do impactful science, from demystifying climate scenarios for marine ecology audiences (Burgess et al. 2023) to building a data infrastructure that standardized dozens of publicly-available bottom trawl surveys from around the world (Maureaud et al. 2024). I’ve also written about the challenges and opportunities that the open science movement presents to the marine sciences, especially for early-career scientists (Fredston and Lowndes 2024).
Thank you for your interest in joining the lab! UCSC is on the cutting edge of environmental and marine research. Strong support exists for interdisciplinary work and partnerships, via the Institute for Marine Sciences, NOAA’s Southwest Fishery Science Center, and more. I encourage prospective graduate students to explore the Ocean Sciences prospective student page, including the program prerequisites listed here.
The Fredston Lab is a computational group that develops and tests hypotheses about fundamental dynamics of marine ecosystems using theoretical models and Bayesian and frequentist statistics. Successful Fredston Lab members are likely to have experience and/or substantial interest in these methods. In other words, there is a lot of math, probability, and code involved, and most people in the group will not be collecting primary (field or lab) data. That said, I am open to a broad array of approaches to answering these questions, and committed to training early career researchers in quantitative methods. Regardless of technical background or research topic, everyone in the lab is enthusiastic about open science principles and practices.
I am always open to co-developing proposals for fellowships and other externally funded positions, such as the PPFP (due annually in November), Smith Fellowship (due annually in September), and NSF Ocean Sciences and Biology postdoctoral fellowships (due annually in November). I expect PhD students in the lab to apply to competitive fellowships for which they are eligible, including the NSF GRFP, NDSEG, the NOAA Population and Ecosystem Dynamics Fellowship.
Many lists exist of national fellowships; you may find some relevant graduate fellowships on this University of Miami page, some postdoc fellowships on this University of Minnesota page, and both on Dr. Jurgens’ page. Johns Hopkins University also maintains lists of graduate and postdoctoral fellowships for all research fields.
I may also have additional funding for students and postdocs to join the lab. All prospective lab members should email me directly. I encourage you to include the following in your email:
This great guide to emailing prospective PhD advisers by Dr. Hart at UNSW is worth reading, too (and if it’s paywalled for you just let me know and I will send you a copy).
I aim to respond to every email from a prospective lab member. However, I receive a ton of email every day, and occasionally I miss things. If you don’t get a response (or out-of-office reply) from me within a week or two, please feel free to email again.