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Dr

Mary Young

Lecturer, Coastal and Marine Science

Faculty of Science Engineering and Built Environment/School of Life and Environmental Sciences/Centre for Marine Science

Orcid identifier0000-0001-7426-2343
  • Lecturer, Coastal and Marine Science
    Faculty of Science Engineering and Built Environment/School of Life and Environmental Sciences/Centre for Marine Science
  • +61 3 556 33097 (Work)
  • Warrnambool Campus, Princes Highway, Warrnambool Victoria 3280

BIO

2008 - 2014 - Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of
California at Santa Cruz

2008 - Researcher on NOAA's search for deepwater caves in Bermuda

2005 - 2014 - Processing Supervisor at Seafloor Mapping Lab at California
State University at Monterey Bay

2002- 2007 - B.S. in Marine and Coastal Ecology at California State
University at Monterey Bay

Mary completed her Bachelor's degree in Marine and Coastal Ecology at
California State University, Monterey Bay where she also worked as a lab
manager for the Seafloor Mapping Lab. During her time at the Seafloor Mapping
Lab, she participated in the California Seafloor Mapping Program which mapped
the coastal waters of California out to 3 nautical miles. During this time,
Mary gained vast knowledge in the acquisition and processing of multibeam,
sidescan and interferometric data. Even with this new skillset, her interest
remained in marine ecology and mapping the seafloor gave insight into the
heterogeneous environment in the oceans and sparked her interest in the field
of marine landscape ecology. By using landscape ecology techniques and the
seafloor maps, she completed and published her undergraduate capstone project
on explaining and predicting rockfish distribution across the Cordell Bank
National Marine Sanctuary in California, USA. During her year off between
finishing her undergraduate degree and starting her graduate degree she also
worked on and published a project with Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution
looking at spawning location preference of California market squid
(Doryteuthis opalescens). She then went on to complete her Ph.D. in Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the
Raimondi-Carr Lab. The main goal of her Ph.D. research was to apply landscape
ecology to answer broad scale questions in marine ecology. Combining
oceanography, biogenic habitat and population connectivity, she looked at the
distributions of temperate nearshore reef fishes, giant kelp (Macrocystis
pyrifera) and the placement and evaluation of marine protected areas. At
Deakin, Mary's research will be focused on looking at broad scale patterns in
marine systems with the incorporation of oceanographic processes, population
characteristics, genetics, and seafloor habitat. Understanding these broad
scale patterns in the oceans will help to understand the effects of climate
change and help with marine spatial planning.

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY CURRENT APPOINTMENT

  • Lecturer, Coastal and Marine Science
    Deakin University, School of Life and Environmental Sciences

DEGREES

  • Doctor of Philosophy
    University of California

FIELDS OF RESEARCH (2020)

  • Ecology
  • Environmental management
  • Ecological applications
  • Oceanography
  • Climate change impacts and adaptation

AVAILABILITY FOR SUPERVISION

  • Masters by Research and PhD supervision

AREA/FACULTY

  • Faculty of Science Engineering and Built Environment

DEPARTMENT/SCHOOL/INSTITUTE

  • School of Life and Environmental Sciences

STRATEGIC RESEARCH AND INNOVATION CENTRE

  • Centre for Marine Science