Claire B Paris

PeerJ Editor

Summary

Claire Beatrix Paris is a Professor in the department of Ocean Science, University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Director of the Physical-Biological Interactions Lab, she focuses on biophysical dispersion at sea, as well as the transport and fate of pollutants and oil spills from deep-sea blowout. Paris has brought recognition to the key role of behavior of the pelagic larval stage in the connectivity of marine populations and the function of ecosystems.

Paris has developed numerical and empirical tools for her laboratory’s research, both used worldwide: the Connectivity Modeling System (CMS) is an Open-Source Software (OSS) that virtually tracks biotic and abiotic particles in the ocean, and the Drifting In Situ Chamber (DISC) is a field instrument used to track the movement behavior of the early life history stages of marine organisms and detect the signals they use to orient and navigate.

Animal Behavior Biological Oceanography Climate Change Biology Computational Science Conservation Biology Ecology Ecosystem Science Environmental Impacts Marine Biology Scientific Computing & Simulation Software Engineering

Editorial Board Member

PeerJ - the Journal of Life & Environmental Sciences

Work details

Professor of Ocean Sciences

University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

December 2008

Ocean Sciences

The Paris’ lab focuses on dispersion and connectivity at sea using complementary empirical and modeling approaches. Paris’ team has developed and maintains an open-source probabilistic Lagrangian tool, the Connectivity Modeling System (CMS), used to track oceanic currents, pollutants, and the early life forms of marine organisms that dwell in the plankton. To inform the virtual particles with realistic behaviors, Paris has pioneered a unique underwater drifting laboratory, the Drifting In Situ Chamber (DISC) that tracks the orientation of larvae and record the signals (acoustic, chemical, magnetic, celestial) they use to find the nursery grounds. Significant applications of the research in the Paris lab are the optimization of marine reserve networks, solving the questions of marine populations connectivity, animal navigation, the spread of invasive species, tracking marine debris from large objects to micro-plastics beneath the ocean surface, first response to oil spills and deep-sea blowouts, and the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems at all scales, including global scales.