Professor Siegel’s research focuses on aquatic ecosystems and their functioning using the tools of an applied physicist, radiative transfer and fluid mechanics. His work specifically addresses the coupling of marine ecosystems and physical oceanographic processes using circulation models, marine bio-optics, and satellite ocean color remote sensing. Using these tools he has worked on a wide suite of problems ranging from microbial and population diversity, open ocean biogeochemical cycling, ocean bio-optics, kelp forest metapopulation dynamics, larval transport and nearshore fisheries management, fisherman behavior and too many more.
E-mail: david.siegel @ ucsb.edu
Unraveling the Ocean’s Secrets
In the absence of carbon, life on Earth cannot exist. Yet much of how this fundamental element circulates throughout the planet’s oceans remains a scientific mystery.
To learn more about the ocean’s carbon cycle, a team of investigators led by UC Santa Barbara oceanographer David Siegel is set to implement a new NASA project: the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) Science Plan. EXPORTS will help scientists develop a comprehensive understanding of how the world’s oceans process carbon and how they mitigate carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere.
Read ArticleProfessor Siegel received a B.A. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from University of California, San Diego and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California. In 1989, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Since 1990, he has been on the faculty at University of California, Santa Barbara and is a Professor in the Department of Geography and an Affiliated Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology