Stacie Fejtek

Masters Student

Marine Plant Ecology Lab
As an undergraduate I attended the University of California Santa Barbara where I was employed at the REEF (Research Education Experience Facility http://www.msi.ucsb.edu/Pages/educat.html ) where K-12 students, college students, UCSB faculty and staff have the chance to learn more about marine ecosystems, emphasizing the unique habitat found in the Santa Barbara Channel. It was during this experience that I first truly realized my passion for learning and sharing that knowledge with anyone who would listen. The REEF introduced me to scientific diving which finally immersed me (literally ten to thirty meters underwater) in field ecology.
My interest in graduate school skyrocketed after I spent three months engrossed in field work in Moorea, French Polynesia with Dr. Russell Schmitt and Dr. Sally Holbrook. Perhaps more importantly, I worked very closely with four of Dr. Schmitt's and Dr. Holbrook's Ph.D./Masters students that sparked my curiosity in pursuing my own graduate research.
While I am still developing my research ideas for my Master's thesis, I am clearly headed into the deep. I have chosen as my topic of study, Pelagophycus porra commonly know as Elk Kelp, a huge and impressive deep-water species of brown algae and one of the largest known algal species .. Pelagophycus occurs at a depth of approximately twenty meters with a stipe length as large as twenty-seven meters long. Because of the depth and the limited range (Point Conception to Baja California) there is very little know about the physiology and life history of this species. I am interested in understanding the factors that determine the upper (shallow) depth limits of Pelagophycus. Answering this is important because it will provide insight into why this kelp species does not encroach into the more abundant giant kelp forests along the southern California coast. This will also ultimately provide insight into local-scale patterns of species distribution along vertical gradient.