Mark Hay, Professor and Harry and Linda Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology

About Mark Hay

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.

Recent Publications

[Complete list of publications]

166) Hay ME. 2009 Marine chemical ecology: Chemical signals and cues structure marine populations, communities, and ecosystems. Annual Review of Marine Sciences 1: (in press) doi: 10.1146/annurev.marine.010908.163708 [PDF]

165) Hay ME. (in press) The ecology of infochemicals in aquatic communities: crustaceans as powerful model systems. In: Thomas Breithaupt & Martin Thiel (eds.) Chemical Communications in Crustaceans. Springer,

164) Jiang R., Lane AL, Mylacraine L, Hardcastle K, Fairchild CR, Hay ME, and Kubanek J. 2008. Structures and Absolute Configurations of Sulfate-Conjugated Triterpenoids Including an Antifungal Chemical Defense of the Green Macroalga Tydemania expeditionis. Journal of Natural Products 71:1616-1619. [PDF]

163) Jiang R-W, ME Hay, CR Fairchild, J Prudhomme, K Le Roch, W Aalbersberg, J Kubanek. 2008. Antineoplastic unsaturated fatty acids from Fijian macroalgae. Phytochemistry 69:2495-2500. [PDF]

162) Parker JD, J Montoya, and ME Hay.2008. A specialist detritivore links Spartina alterniflora to salt marsh food webs. Marine Ecology Progress Series 364:87-95. [PDF]