October 11, 2022, by Alex McCarrel

The Sitka Sound Science Center welcomes Scotty Gabara as this month’s Scientist in Residency Fellow (SIRF)! Dr. Gabara’s work focuses on the impacts of glacier melt on marine ecosystems, with fellowship funding by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ NSF EPSCoR (National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program. The Sitka Sound Science Center’s SIRF program provides four weeks for scientists to have time to work on their research and engage with a breadth of the community in a variety of ways.

 

Scotty is a postdoctoral researcher in the marine biology department within the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at University of Alaska Fairbanks, based in Juneau. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Santa Cruz and began taking courses in scientific diving. Scotty earned a Master’s in marine science from Moss Landing marine laboratory through San Jose State University and studied the impacts of boat mooring chains on coralline algal communities off Santa Catalina Island in Southern California. During this time, he co-taught scientific diving at Moss Landing marine laboratories. He received a Ph.D. from the joint doctoral program with San Diego State University and University of California Davis and conducted his doctoral work on the impacts of losing kelp forests across many of the Aleutian Islands.

Currently, Scotty works on the impacts of glacial melt on nearshore marine communities. Combining surveys of intertidal marine communities, beach seines for estimating nearshore fishes, and intertidal sensors measuring seawater salinity, temperature, oxygen, and light, he hopes to better predict how melting glaciers will affect marine flora and fauna. This information could be used by harvesters, aquaculture farmers, and the scientific community to better understand where and when glacier melt will affect the ocean and the people that rely on it. While in Sitka, Scotty is excited to share is knowledge on marine ecosystems, scientific diving, and underwater photography. Besides the FREE community events listed below, Scotty will meet with local high school and middle school students, leading them on fun-filled lab experiments.

Mark Your Calendars!

• The Morning Interview – Tune into KCAW 104.7 FM on Thursday October 13^th @ 8:15 AM
• Underwater Photography Workshop – Join Scotty for a Science After Hours Workshop at SSSC on Thursday, October 13^th from 5:30-7:00 PM. Register at https://tinyurl.com/SitkaSciencePhotos
• Natural History Seminar w/ Kitty LaBounty – In partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast, a virtual seminar about Scotty’s research titled “How glacial melt is affecting nearshore marine ecosystems in Alaska” on Wednesday, October 19^th @ 7:00 PM (register at https://tinyurl.com/ScottyGabara)
• Community Snorkel Adventure – Led by Scotty, experience our local marine environment through a community snorkel excursion on Friday, October 21^st @ 4:00 PM. Registration TBA.

 

Follow @sitkascience or email Alex McCarrel at amccarrel@sitkascience.org for more information.
Scotty can be reached at ssgabara@alaska.edu.