People

Mike Beck, Senior Scientist, Global Marine Initiative © Steve Kurtz

Mike Beck, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Global Marine Initiative

Brief Biography
Mike Beck is a Senior Scientist with the Global Marine Initiative of The Nature Conservancy and a research associate at the University of California Santa Cruz.  He works in the interface between marine science and policy. His present work includes research on (i) marine regional planning, (ii) the nursery role of nearshore habitats such as kelp forests, (iii) tools for ecosystem-based management and land-sea integration, (iv) the conservation and restoration of nearshore habitats including shellfish reefs and beds, and (v) marine proprietary rights including the lease and ownership of submerged lands.

Education
1995 Ph.D.- Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fl. (Biological Science)
1991 M.S.- University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Va. (Environmental Sciences)
1988 B.A.- University of Virginia. Charlottesville, Va. (Environmental Sciences)

Selected Publications
Airoldi, L, Beck, M. W. 2007.  Loss, status, and trends for coastal marine habitats of Europe.  Annual Review of Marine Biology and Oceanography 45:347-407.

Valentine, J. F., Heck K.L. Jr., Blackmon, D., Goecker, M. E., Christian, J., Kroutil, R., Kirsch, K.D., Peterson, B.J. Beck, M.W., Vanderklift, M. A. 2007. Food web interactions along seagrass-coral reef boundaries: an experimental test of the impacts of piscivore reduction on cross-habitat energy exchange using the marine protected areas of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Marine Ecology Progress Series 333:37-50. 

Brumbaugh, R.D., Beck, M.W., Coen, L. D., Craig L. and Hicks, P. 2006. A Practitioners' Guide to the Design and Monitoring of Shellfish Restoration Projects: An Ecosystem Services Approach. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA.

Airoldi L., Abbiati M., Beck M. W., Hawkins S.J., Jonsson P.R., Martin D., Moschella P. S., Sundelof A., Thompson R. C., ?berg P. 2005.  An ecological perspective on the deployment and design of low- crested and other hard coastal defence structures. Coastal Engineering 52: 1073? 1087.

Beck, M. W., T. D. Marsh, S. E. Reisewitz, M. Bortman. 2004. New tools for marine conservation: the leasing and ownership of submerged lands. Conservation Biology 18:1214?1223.
 
Beck, M. W., Heck, K. L. Jr. , Able, K. W., Childers, D. L., Eggleston, D. B., Gillanders, B. M., Halpern, B., Hays, C. G., Hoshino, K., Minello, T. J., Orth, R. J. Sheridan, P. F., Weinstein, M. P. 2003. The role of nearshore ecosystems as fish and shellfish nurseries. Issues in Ecology 11:1-12.

Beck, M. W. 2003. The sea around: marine regional planning. pp. In Groves, C. R. Drafting a conservation blueprint: a practitioners' guide to planning for biodiversity. Island Press.

Groves, C. R., Jensen, D. B., Valutis, L. L., Redford, K. H., Shaffer, M. L., Scott, J. M., Baumgartner, J. V., Higgins, J. V., Beck, M. W., Anderson, M. G. 2002. Planning for biodiversity conservation: putting conservation science into practice. Bioscience 52:499-512.

Beck, M. W., Heck, K. L. Jr. , Able, K. W., Childers, D. L., Eggleston, D. B., Gillanders, B. M., Halpern, B., Hays, C. G., Hoshino, K., Minello, T. J., Orth, R. J. Sheridan, P. F., Weinstein, M. P. 2001. The identification, conservation and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates. Bioscience 51:633-641.

Beck, M. W. and M. Odaya. 2001. Ecoregional planning in marine environments: identifying priority sites for conservation in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Aquatic Conservation 11:235-242.

Beck, M. W. 2000. Separating the elements of habitat structure: independent effects of habitat complexity and structural components on rocky intertidal gastropods. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 249:29-49.

Beck, M. W. 1997. A test of the generality of the effects of shelter bottlenecks in four stone crab populations. Ecology 78:2487-2503.

Beck, M. W. 1997. Inference and generality in ecology: current problems and an experimental solution. Oikos 78:265-273.

Beck, M. W. 1996. On discerning the cause of the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Paleobiology 22:91-103.

Beck, M. W. and E. F. Connor. 1992. Factors affecting the reproductive success of the crab spider, Misumenoides formosipes: the covariance between juvenile and adult traits. Oecologia 92: 287-295.

Awards/Honors
1996-1998 Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow-. University of Sydney.
1995 Fulbright Fellow. University of Sydney.

Advisory Committees (past 3 years)
2004 Marine Reserves & Fisheries Management: Scientific Consensus Panel Member          
2002-2003 Commission for Environmental Cooperation-- North American Marine Protected Area Network.
2002-2003 NatureServe/NOAA-Development of North American Marine Ecosystem Classification.
2000-2003 European Union Energy, Environment, and Sustainable Development Program- Annual Science Review.