Dr. KIM BERNARD
Kim Bernard is a Biological Oceanographer who conducts empirical and hypothesis-driven research that focuses on the role that zooplankton play in pelagic food webs and biogeochemical cycles throughout the world’s oceans. Central to her work is the fundamental question – How does natural and anthropogenic environmental change alter pelagic communities and thus the structure and function of pelagic ecosystems and services? Bernard makes use of a wide range of experimental and observational techniques and her work relies primarily on quantitative data collected during long field campaigns spent at sea or remote field stations. In total, Bernard has spent 64 weeks at sea and 29 months at Palmer Station, Antarctica. Much of her work has been part of large multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research projects where she enjoys working with a global network of collaborators. She leads the Zooplankton Ecology Lab at Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.
Why is the HALO project important to you? Anything you’re most excited to learn about?
I am excited to be a part of HALO because most of my prior work has been conducted in far-off oceans and contributing to research off the Oregon Coast is important to me.
Why is support from the public so essential to the
HALO project?
The support from the public to fund HALO is essential because it will provide us with the opportunity to start obtaining a holistic view of the marine ecosystem off Oregon, which is valuable not only for scientists and decision makers but also for the public who rely on the high productivity of this region.