Andrew Thurber

Biography

I received my Bachelor’s of Science in Marine Biology from Hawai'i Pacific University with a minor in Mathematics.  During this time I fell in love with the mud as an ecosystem, a juxtaposition of microbes and strange (and sometimes beautiful) invertebrates whose integrated processes shape the world around us. I then turned to the Antarctic, and under the mentorship of Dr. Stacy Kim, I received a Master’s in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories focusing on Antarctic ecology. During my PhD from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, I was advised by Dr. Lisa Levin and studied food-web ecology of deep-sea methane seeps. After completing my PhD, I was a National Science Foundation Polar Postdoctoral Fellow hosted at Oregon State University, where I then became a faculty member in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Microbiology, College of Science prior to starting my current position at UCSB in 2024.

Research

My research focuses on how deep-sea and polar communities function.  These areas cover well over 63 percent of the globe, provide a wealth of services to mankind, and yet remain largely unknown and unexplored. While my research ranges across all ocean depths, the ultimate goal is to increase our understanding of the planet around us.

A main focus of this work is identifying how microbial processes are impacted by multicellular animals, especially in soft-sediment habitats.  Bacteria and Archaea are well known to be dominant drivers in the biogeochemical cycling of the planet.  However, how these microbial processes are impacted by grazing by animals is largely unknown, yet we know that these sorts of ‘trophic’ interactions can be incredibly important in driving the function of systems.  In the deep-sea and polar marine realm we are still at an early stage in this research: identifying that bacteria and archaea are consumed and what that means to the ecology of habitats.  The lab frequently asks questions about this at methane-fueled habitats, where the processes impact the fate of a greenhouse gas and thus our planet's future.