People
Rebecca Asch
Ph.D., Biological Oceanography
2013-2016 Senior Research Fellow (Princeton University)
Assistant Professor of Fisheries Biology, East Carolina University
Rebecca Asch is a fisheries oceanographer whose research focuses on interactions between fisheries, plankton ecology, and climate. Her research combines fieldwork, time series analysis, and ecosystem modeling, spanning local-to-global and subseasonal-to-centennial scales. Rebecca’s research primarily investigates whether climate change could lead to increased seasonal mismatches between trophic levels. Many fishes spawn synchronously with plankton blooms to maximize food availability for their offspring. Seasonal timing of both fish reproduction and plankton blooms is changing under global warming, but these shifts do not always occur at the same rate. Mismatches between trophic levels can lead to lower recruitment and decreased fisheries productivity.
Publications
Asch et al (2017) Future marine ecosystem drivers, biodiversity and fisheries maximum catch potential in Pacific Island countries and territories under climate change: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17301409
Singh, G. G., Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M., Swartz, W., Cheung, W., Guy, J. A., Kenny, T. A., McOwen, C. J., Asch. R., Geffert, J. L., Wabnitz, C. C. C., Sumaila, U. R., Hanich, Q., Ota, Y., 2017, A rapid assessment of co-benefits and trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals, Marine Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.05.030, link
Cheung W., Frölicher T., Asch R., Jones M., Pinsky M., Reygondeau G., Rodgers K., Rykaczewski R., Sarmiento J., Stock C., Watson J., 2015, Building confidence in projections of the responses of living marine resources to climate change, Climate Change, Marine Management, ICES Journal of Marine Science, link
Coble A., Asch R., Rivero-Calle S., Heerhartz S., Holding J., Kremer C., Finiguerra M., Strock, K., 2016, Climate Is Variable, but Is Our Science?, Marine Ecosystem, Climate Change, Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin, link
Asch R., 2015, Climate change and decadal shifts in the phenology of larval fishes in the California Current ecosystem, Marine Ecosystem, Climate Change, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), link
Checkley, D., Asch, R., Rykaczewski, R., 2017, Climate, Anchovy, and Sardine, Marine Ecosystem, Climate Change, Annual Review of Marine Science, Volume 9, link
Asch R., Pilcher D., Rivero-Calle S., Holding J., 2016, Demystifying Models: Answers to Ten Common Questions That Ecologists Have About Earth System Models, Marine Ecosystem, Climate Change, Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin, link
Asch, R. G., Cheung, W. W. L., Reygondeau, G., 2017. Future marine ecosystem drivers, biodiversity, and fisheries maximum catch potential in Pacific Island countries and territories under climate change, Fisheries, Biodiversity, Marine Policy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.08.015, link
Tommasi, D., Stock, C. A., Hobday, A. J., Methot, R., Kaplan, I. C., Eveson, J. P., Holsman, K., Miller, T. J., Gaichas, S., Gehlen, M., Pershing, A., Vecchi, G. A., Msadek, R., Delworth, T., Eakin, C. M., Haltuch, M. A., Séférian, R., Spillman, C. M., Hartog, J. R., Siedlecki, S., Samhouri, J. F., Muhling, B., Asch, R. G., Pinsky, M. L., Saba, V. S., Kapnick, S. B., Gaitan, C. B., Rykaczewski, R. R., Alexander, M. A., Xue, Y., Pegion, K. V., Lynch, P., Payne, M. R., Kristiansen, T., Lehodey, P., Werner, F. E., 2017, Managing living marine resources in a dynamic environment: The role of seasonal to decadal climate forecasts, Fisheries Management, Climate Change, Progress in Oceanography, 52, 15-49, link
Stock, C. A., John, J. G., Rykaczewski, R. R., Asch, R. G., Cheung, W. W. L., Dunne, J. P., Friedland, K. D., Lam, V. W. Y., Sarmiento, J. L., Watson, R. A. , 2017, Reconciling fisheries catch and ocean productivity, Fisheries Management, Biodiversity, Policy, PNAS, doi:10.1073, link
Friedland K., Record N., Asch R., Kristiansen T., Saba V., Drinkwater K., Henson S., Leaf R., Morse R., Johns D., Large S., Hjøllo, Nye J., Alexander M., Ji R., 2016, Seasonal phytoplankton blooms in the North Atlantic linked to the overwintering strategies of copepods, Marine Ecosystem, Oceanography, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, Volume 4, link
Friedland K.D., Leaf R.T., Kane J., Tommasi D., Asch R.G., Rebuck N., Ji R., Large S.I., Stockk C., Saba V.S., 2015, Spring bloom dynamics and zooplankton biomass response on the US Northeast Continental Shelf, Biodiversity, Aquaculture, Continental Shelf Research, vol 102, pages 47-61, link
The East Carolina University (ECU) Fisheries Oceanography Lab is now open and being run by Rebecca Asch, a Senior Nereus Fellow at Princeton University from 2013 to 2016.
Climate change is resulting in the earlier arrival of spring conditions in many ecosystems around the world.
In spring, as the plant buds push up through the ground and the days get warmer and longer, the baby salmon fry hatch out of their eggs and start swimming and feeding. At this time, their food – phytoplankton – should also bloom.
“Seasonal phytoplankton blooms in the North Atlantic linked to the overwintering strategies of copepods,” co-authored by Nereus Fellow Rebecca Asch (Princeton University), was recently published in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.
25 January 2018 - 27 January 2018
6 March 2017 - 11 March 2017
15 March 2017 - 15 March 2017
20 May 2017 - 25 May 2017
Nereus alumnus Rebecca Asch (East Carolina University) writes a blog about her upcoming publication in the journal Global Change Biology, which focuses on how climate change is influencing seasonality, thereby creating critical mismatches in the timing between fish spawning and phytoplankton blooms in marine food webs.
