James Barry

His research group studies the biology and ecology of marine benthic communities, with a major goal of understanding interactions among environmental factors and biological adaptations that influence the survival, growth, and reproduction of organisms, ultimately determining their distribution and abundance. His recent work emphasizes the influence of climate change, including global warming and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, on ocean animals and ecosystems. Environmental conditions throughout the world ocean are changing in response to fossil fuel emissions and greenhouse warming in the atmosphere. Climate change and high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are, in turn, causing a domino-like series of changes in ocean conditions, including ocean warming, decreased oxygen content of deep ocean waters due to reduced mixing of oxygenated surface waters to depth, and ocean acidification. Our lab examines the physiological responses of organisms to changing ocean conditions using experiments performed in the laboratory and in deep-sea environments using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).