Matt Woodstock
I received my bachelor’s degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology from Beloit College in 2015. Later that year, I began my master’s degree in Marine Biology at Nova Southeastern University with Dr. Tracey Sutton and the DEEPEND group. There I completed a thesis focused on the diet and parasites of mesopelagic fishes in the Gulf of Mexico. Following my master’s, I began a PhD at Florida International University working under Dr. Yuying Zhang in the Fisheries and Ecosystem Assessment Lab. My dissertation is centered around developing ecosystem-based models to investigate the ecological importance of mesopelagic fauna and the ecosystem-level impacts that the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill had on the system. Additionally, I am creating consumer-mediated nutrient models to learn more about active nutrient transfer in the oceanic Gulf of Mexico. I am broadly interested in ecosystem functioning and connectivity in the open ocean and the trophic structure of deep-sea food webs.