Tarik Gouhier, Assistant Professor
Research areas
Population Biology, Community Ecology, Theoretical Ecology, Eco-informatics
Contact Information
Marine Science Center
430 Nahant Road
Nahant, MA 01908
USA
Phone: (781) 581-7370 ext. 302
Fax: (781) 581-6076
Email: t.gouhier@neu.edu
Lab website: http://www.northeastern.edu/synchrony
Academic Education
B.Sc. McGill University
M.Sc. McGill University
Ph.D. McGill University
Appointments
Assistant Professor, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences (2012 - present)
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Zoology, Oregon State University (2010 - 2012)
Research Interests
Research in my laboratory combines mathematical models, computer simulations and statistical analyses of large datasets to determine how ecological and environmental processes occurring at different scales and levels of organization interact to shape the distribution of species in space and time.
We are particularly interested in identifying the processes that govern the structure and dynamics of interconnected marine communities in order to predict the effects of environmental change (e.g., habitat destruction, non-native species introductions, climate change).
Elucidating these fundamental processes will allow us to devise adaptive management strategies such as reserve networks that will maximize the productivity and persistence of whole ecosystems.
Such mutually beneficial feedbacks between basic and applied research will promote our understanding of the natural world and improve our stewardship of its invaluable resources.
Teaching Activities
I am currently developing several courses that will emphasize quantitative skills such as theoretical and statistical modeling. All my courses will include a computer lab component that will allow students to get practical experience applying the latest techniques using R, a versatile and open source statistical framework that is fast becoming the de facto language of numerical ecology.
By fostering the exploration of this new framework in a supervised environment, these courses will allow students to develop the statistical and programming skills required to construct mathematical models and analyze increasingly complex ecological datasets.
Selected Publications
Iles, A.C., T. C. Gouhier, B. A. Menge, J. Stewart, A. Haupt and M. Lynch. 2012. Climate driven trends and implications of event-scale upwelling in the California Current System. Global Change Biology 18:783-796
Gouhier, T. C., B. A. Menge and S. D. Hacker. 2011. Recruitment facilitation can promote coexistence and buffer population growth in metacommunities. Ecology Letters 14:1201-1210
Menge, B. A., T. C. Gouhier, T. Freidenburg and J. Lubchenco. 2011. Linking long-term, large-scale climatic and environmental variability to patterns of marine invertebrate recruitment: toward explaining “unexplained” variation. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 400:236-249
Woodson, C. B., J. A. Barth, O. M. Cheriton, M. A. McManus, J. P. Ryan, L. Washburn, K. N. Carden, B. S. Cheng, J. Fernandes, L. E. Garske, T. C. Gouhier, A. J. Haupt, K. T. Honey, M. F. Hubbard, A. Iles, L. Kara, M. C. Lynch, B. Mahoney, M. Pfaff, M. L. Pinsky, M. J. Robart, J. S. Stewart, S. J. Teck and A. True. 2011. Observations of internal wave packets propagating along-shelf in northern Monterey Bay. Geophysical Research Letters 38:L01605.
Gouhier, T. C., F. Guichard and B. A. Menge. 2010. Ecological processes can synchronize marine population dynamics over continental scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107:8281-8286
Gouhier, T. C., F. Guichard and A. Gonzalez. 2010. Synchrony and stability of food webs in metacommunities. The American Naturalist 175:E16-E34
Flinn, K., T. C. Gouhier, M. Lechowicz and M. Waterway. 2010. The role of dispersal in shaping plant community composition of wetlands within an old-growth forest. Journal of Ecology 98:1292-1299
Gouhier, T. C. and F. Guichard. 2007. Local disturbance cycles and the maintenance of heterogeneity across scales in marine metapopulations. Ecology 88:647-657
