Dr. Heather Leslie
Associate Research Scholar
Marine population and community ecology; marine conservation science;
marine reserve design and conservation planning; ecosystem-based management; and coupled social-ecological marine systems


Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1003
Tel: (609) 258-7437, Fax: 258-7715, email: hleslie (at) princeton.edu



I'M MOVING! As of July 1st:


Sharpe Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology
Center for Environmental Studies & Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Brown University
Box 1943
Providence, RI 02912 USA


I am actively seeking students to join my research group at Brown. Learn more about my research program
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heather on plymouth beach
 
My research is motivated by the desire to contribute scientific tools that can be used to help sustain marine ecosystems, as well as the human communities that rely on them. I am a postdoctoral research fellow with Simon Levin, and am developing conceptual and quantitative models to assess the resilience and robustness of linked social-ecological systems in coastal marine areas. 

My primary project at Princeton is focused on the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortés) region in northwest Mexico. I am developing a series of mathematical models to explore how linkages between key elements of marine social-ecological systems affect major coastal and marine ecosystem services, specifically the production of wild and farmed seafood and the provision of recreation and tourism opportunities. Other collaborators on this project include Exequiel Ezcurra (San Diego Museum of Natural History), Ann Kinzig (Arizona State University), Karen McLeod (COMPASS/Oregon State University), Akiko Satake (Princeton University), Maja Schlüter (Princeton University), and Jane Lubchenco (Oregon State University).

I received my Ph.D. in 2004 from the Department of Zoology,
Oregon State University, where I worked with Jane Lubchenco and Bruce Menge. My dissertation focused on the development and evaluation of scientific tools for marine conservation planning, particularly the siting of marine reserves. While in Oregon, I spent a great deal of time in the field investigating the population ecology of barnacles and other elements of rocky intertidal ecology, as well.

I have shared my marine conservation science research with state and federal advisory groups and non-governmental organizations, as well as at scientific meetings and with students. I received an A.B. in Biology from
Harvard University in 1996 and have worked on marine science and policy issues in the U.S. (Massachusetts, Maine, Oregon, and New Jersey), Mexico, and New Zealand.   



Publications

Leslie, H., M. Ruckelshaus, I. R. Ball, S. Andelman, and H. P. Possingham. 2003.  Using siting algorithms in the design of marine reserve networks.  Ecological Applications 13: S185-S198. 

Palumbi, S. R., S.D. Gaines, H. Leslie, and R. R. Warner.  2003.  New wave: high-tech tools to help marine reserve research. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1(2): 73-79. 

Airame, S., J. E. Dugan, K. D. Lafferty, H. Leslie, D. A. McArdle, and R. R. Warner.  2003. Applying ecological criteria to marine reserve design: A case study from the California Channel Islands.  Ecological Applications 13: S170-S184. 

Roberts, C.M., S.J. Andelman, G.M. Branch, R. Bustamante, J.C. Castilla, J.E. Dugan, B. Halpern, K.D. Lafferty, H. Leslie, J. Lubchenco, D.A. McArdle, H.P. Possingham, M.H. Ruckelshaus, and R.R. Warner.  2003a. Ecological criteria for evaluating candidate sites for marine reserves.  Ecological Applications 13: S199-S214. 

Roberts, C. M., G. Branch, R. H. Bustamante, J. C. Castilla, J. Dugan, B. Halpern, K. D. Lafferty, H. Leslie, J. Lubchenco, D. McArdle, M. Ruckelshaus, and R. R. Wagner.  2003b. Application of ecological criteria in selecting marine reserves and developing reserve networks.  Ecological Applications 13: S215-S228. 

Menge, B. A., J. Lubchenco, M. E. S. Bracken, F. Chan, M. M. Foley, T. L. Freidenburg, S. D. Gaines, G. Hudson, C. Krenz, H. Leslie, D. N. L. Menge, R. Russell, and M. S. Webster.  2003.  Coastal oceanography sets the pace of rocky intertidal community dynamics.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.  100(21):12229-12234. 

Giller, P., H. Hillebrand, U G. Berninger, M. Gessner, S. Hawkins, P. Inchausti, C. Inglis, H. Leslie, B. Malmqvist, M.  Monaghan, P. Morin, G.  O’Mullan.  Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: emerging issues and their experimental test in aquatic communities.  Oikos 104: 423-436.

Leslie, H. 2004. Coastal Marine Conservation: Science and Policy. The Quarterly Review of Biology 79:447.

Leslie, H. M. Positive intraspecific effects trump negative effects in high-density barnacle aggregations. Ecology 86(10):2716-25.

Leslie, H. M. A synthesis of marine conservation planning approaches.  Conservation Biology 19(6):1701-13.

McLeod, K. M. and H. Leslie.  Marine Ecosystem-Based Management: Transforming U.S. Ocean Policy.  In M. Groom et al. (eds.),  Principles of Conservation Biology (3rd Edition), pp. 476-479. 

Leslie, H. M., E. N. Breck, F. Chan, B. A. Menge, and J. Lubchenco. Barnacle reproductive hotspots linked to nearshore ocean conditions.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102(30):10534-39.

F. Berkes, T. P. Hughes, R. S. Steneck,  J. A. Wilson, D. R. Bellwood, B. Crona, C. Folke, L. H. Gunderson, H. M. Leslie, J. Norberg, M. Nyström, P. Olsson, H. Österblom, M. Scheffer, B. Worm. 2006. Globalization, roving bandits and marine resources. Science 311:1557-58.

Satake, A., H. M. Leslie, Y. Iwasa, and S. A. Levin. 2007. Coupled ecological-social dynamics in a forested landscape: spatial interactions and information flow. Journal of Theoretical Biology 246: 695-707.

T.P. Hughes, L. Gunderson, C. Folke, A. Baird, D. Bellwood, F. Berkes, B. Crona, A. Helfgott, H. Leslie, J. Norberg, M. Nyström, P. Olsson, H. Österblom, M.Scheffer, H. Schuttenberg, R.S. Steneck, M. Tengö, M. Troell, B. Walker, J. Wilson, B. Worm. Adaptive Management of the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon World Heritage Areas. In press, Ambio.

Leslie, H. M. and K. L. McLeod. Confronting the challenges of implementing marine ecosystem-based management. In press, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.


In Review/Preparation 

H. M. Leslie and A. P. Kinzig.  Managing for resilience in multi-state marine systems: the need for a coupled social-ecological perspective.  In review, Bioscience.

K. McLeod and H. M. Leslie (editors). Managing for resilience: New directions for marine ecosystem-based management. Washington, DC: Island Press. Edited volume to be published in Summer 2008.

Kinzig, A.P. and H. M. Leslie. Consequences of resilience thinking for marine ecosystem-based management  Chapter 5 In: Managing for resilience: New directions for marine ecosystem-based management. Washington, DC: Island Press. In review.




Curriculum Vitae:          
     PDF                                                

Ph.D. Thesis (2004):         PDF



I gratefully acknowledge support from
the David and Lucile Packard Foundation,
the Santa Fe Institute, and the Princeton Environmental Institute. 



paternoster beach

Evening in Paternoster, South Africa

Updated 12 June 2007 * Contact Heather at hleslie  (at)  princeton.edu