Mark Hay, Professor and Harry and Linda Teasely Chair in Environmental Biology
Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine
Phone: (404) 894-8429
Fax: (404) 385-4440
Office: (ES&T) 2102/2185
Research Interests
I use field experimentation to assess how consumer-prey interactions, competition, and physical stresses interact to determine community structure 
and ecosystem function in temperate vs. tropical oceans, and in marine vs. freshwater systems. Although much of our work focuses on benthic systems like coral reefs, we have recently expanded our investigations to include several projects on interactions in the plankton. The majority of our research focuses on plant-herbivore and predator-prey interactions, and on the ecological and evolutionary cascades of indirect effects that are caused by prey chemical defenses. We are also increasing our emphasis on using basic ecological and evolutionary investigations to facilitate management, conservation, and restoration of aquatic systems.
Current Research
My lab places special emphasis on contrasting plant-herbivore and predator-prey interactions in marine, terrestrial, and freshwater communities, on alterations in these interactions over spatial scales ranging from centimeters to hundreds of kilometers, and on understanding the role of chemical defenses 
in mediating biotic interactions. Current projects include: — the effects of prey chemical, structural, and morphological defenses on consumer feeding and fitness; — how prey chemical defenses have cascading effects on community organization;
- ontogenetic and body part shifts in patterns, and mechanisms, of defense; — the species-specific effects of herbivorous fishes on coral reef community health and the potential for using these variable effects as large-scale management tools; — the interactive roles of herbivory and nutrient enrichment on coral-algal interactions and the structure of tropical reefs; — the ecology and evolution of chemically-mediated interactions in freshwater communities. — effects of phytoplankton chemical defenses on biocomplexity.
Selected Publications
Long JD, GW Smalley, T Barsby, JT Anderson, and ME Hay. (in press) Chemical cues induce consumer-specific defenses in a bloom-forming marine phytoplankton. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Parker JD, CC Caudill, and ME Hay. 2007. Beaver herbivory on aquatic plants. Oecologia 151:616-625
Wilson AE, and ME Hay. 2007. A direct test of cyanobacterial chemical defense: Variable effects of microcystin-treated food on two Daphnia pulicaria clones. Limnology and Oceanography 52: 1467-1479
Parker JD, DE Burkepile, and ME Hay. 2006. Opposing effects of native vs. exotic herbivores on plant invasions. Science 311: 1459-1461
Kicklighter CE and ME Hay. 2006. Defenses of mobile marine invertebrates are integrated with life-style, mobility, and distribution. Ecological Monographs 76:195-215.
Burkepile DE and ME Hay. 2006. Herbivore versus nutrient control of marine primary producers: Context-dependent effects. Ecology 87: 3128-3139.
Burkepile DE, JD Parker, CB Woodson, HJ Mills, J Kubanek, PA Sobecky, and ME Hay. 2006. Chemically-mediated competition between microbes and animals: microbes as consumers in food webs. Ecology 87:2821-2831.
Long JD and ME Hay. 2006. When intraspecific exceeds interspecific variance: Effects of phytoplankton morphology and growth phase on copepod feeding and fitness. Limnology and Oceanography 51: 988-996