Mark Hay, Professor and Harry and Linda Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology
Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine
Email:
Phone: 404-894-8429
Fax: 404-385-4440
Office: Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) 2102
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
Dixson DL and ME Hay. 2012. Corals chemically cue mutualistic fishes to remove competing seaweeds. Science 338:804-807 [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
Goodman KM, ME Hay. 2012. Activated chemical defenses suppress herbivory on freshwater red algae. Oecologia. 2012 Sep 26
Cervantes S, E P Stout, J Prudhomme, S Engel, M Bruton, M Cervantes, D Carter, Y Tae-Chang, ME Hay, W Aalbersberg, J Kubanek, and K Le Roch. 2012. High content live cell imaging for the discovery of new antimalarial marine natural products. BMC Infectious Diseases 12:1 doi:10.1186/1471-2334-12-1 [PDF]
Cervantes S, E P Stout, J Prudhomme, S Engel, M Bruton, M Cervantes, D Carter, Y Tae-Chang, ME Hay, W Aalbersberg, J Kubanek, and K Le Roch. 2012. High content live cell imaging for the discovery of new antimalarial marine natural products. BMC Infectious Diseases 12:1 doi:10.1186/1471-2334-12-1
Rasher DB, S Engel, V Bonito, GJ Fraser, JP Montoya, and ME Hay 2012. Effects of herbivory, nutrients, and reef protection on algal proliferation and coral growth on a tropical reef. Oecologia 169:187-198. DOI 10.1007/s00442-011-2174-y [PDF]
Morrison WE and ME Hay. 2012. Are lower latitude plants better defended?: Palatability of freshwater macrophytes. Ecology 93: 65-74 [PDF]
Marion ZH and Hay ME. 2011. Chemical defense of the Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens): Variation in efficiency against different consumers and in different habitats. PLoS ONE 6(12): e27581. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027581 [PDF]
Zhang J, J Kubanek, ME Hay, W Aalbersberg, R Jiang. 2011. Rapid identification of triterpenoid sulfates and hydroxy fatty acids including two new constituents from Tydemania expeditionis by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Journal of Mass Spectrometry 46: 908-916 [PDF]
Long JD and ME Hay (in press) The impact of trait mediated indirect interactions in marine communities. In: T Ohgushi, O Schmitz, and RD Holt (eds) Ecology and Evolution of Trait-Mediated Indirect Interactions: Linking Evolution, Community, and Ecosystem. Cambridge Press
Hay, M.E. and C. Kicklighter. (in press) Grazing, effects of. Encyclopedia of Biodoversity, Second Edition, Academic Press, San Diego, CA (in press).