Diane
Stoecker
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Diane Stoecker is a Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. She received a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1979, then was a post-doctoral scholar and scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution before accepting a faculty position at University of Maryland in 1991.

Her research interests include growth and grazing of marine planktonic protists (microzooplankton and eukaryotic phytoplankton) and interactions between microbial food webs and higher trophic levels. She has conducted research in the North Atlantic, Equatorial Pacific, and Antarctic seas as well as in coastal waters. Her recent research includes feeding by photosynthetic dinoflagellates, photosynthesis and organelle retention in ciliate microzooplankton, harmful algae blooms and their effects on larval development and survival, and interactions between eutrophication, top down control and algal blooms.

The microzooplankton assemblage is important in coupling changes near the base of the food web to higher trophic levels. As part of the BEST-BSIERP program, she is investigating the role of microzooplankton in the southeast Bering Sea ecosystem and the responses of this link to variations in weather and climate.