David Huff, Ph.D.
David Huff, Ph.D.
Background
I joined the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in October 2015. Before that, I was a research scientist at the University of California in Santa Cruz, studying salmon, green sturgeon, and deep-sea corals, among other things. I received a Ph.D. in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota, an M.S. in Environmental Science from Lehigh University, and a B.A. in Biology from Portland State University. I was also an aquatic ecologist for nearly six years at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, where I evaluated the biological and physical condition of streams and rivers throughout Oregon.
Current Research
Much of my research focuses on quantifying the influence of environmental and habitat factors on the survival, growth, distribution, and behavior of fish and invertebrate species. Current interests include: autecological habitat models, community composition models, salmonid life-cycle models, survival models, predation models, integrating hypotheses and experiments to improve conservation decisions for reintroduced populations, and habitat influences on fish behavior. My goal for future research is to connect ocean and estuary ecosystem conditions to salmon trophic dynamics, production, distribution, predation, and habitat using mechanistic and process-oriented models. My ultimate objective is to describe population-level patterns that arise from individual-level processes, because this understanding may produce more accurate predictions outside the range of conditions that we currently experience.