Ethan Deyle

Ethan Deyle, affiliated faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), is foremost a quantitative marine ecologist, exploring ecological questions on a spectrum from theoretical to imminently practical through a common language of nonlinear mathematics. His career as a scientist can be thought of as a dialectic between a love for abstract investigation and a strong desire to help solve immediate environmental problems. The mathematical pole of his work has focused largely on quantifying causality and mechanism from observational time series, which provides the foundation for empirical, data-driven modeling of ecosystem components. This has paired naturally with practical investigations related to ecosystem-based fisheries management and interrelated questions in the wider aquatic coupled human-natural systems like harmful algal blooms and water quality. The broadest goal for the work is growing a data science for natural systems, designed to test existing hypotheses and theory from observational data. Science regularly boils down to questions about causality and mechanism, and thus focusing on time-series approaches to understanding complex or nonlinear interactions in ecosystems has created a framework with remarkable generality across ecosystems and scale.

One exciting direction of his current work as a Research Assistant Professor in BU Biology is focused on building the data science of coral reef restoration. Coral reef conservation is inherently a multi-scale endeavor, with management actions, ecosystem processes, stressors, and outcomes all happening at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. He is also working actively with other BU faculty to advance ocean planning in the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere. Through this work, he hopes to bring oceanographic “big data” to bear on advancing our fundamental understanding of the bottom-up pathways that link fisheries to watersheds and climate through the broader Gulf of Maine system. Finally, he is always open to new projects and collaborations, where his quantitative expertise and passion for data-driven investigation can be an ideal bridge between groups and the research ecosystem surrounding sustainability.

Pronouns: he/him

Twitter: @NonlinearNature

LinkedIn: /ethan-deyle