Bio

Zhang is a marine community ecologist investigating the role of biodiversity, species interactions, and anthropogenic change on coastal ecosystems. Her research aims to answer fundamental questions regarding community and ecosystem structure that can be applied towards developing new and productive approaches to marine restoration.

Area(s) of Expertise

My research is focused around two broad themes:
1) How does global change affect fish communities and essential fish habitat?
2) Can incorporating positive interactions between and among foundation species alter restoration success and ecosystem functioning?

Within these themes, I investigate questions related to the effects of disturbance on estuarine ecosystems, incorporating positive (facilitations, mutualisms) and negative (grazing, predation) species interactions into conservation and restoration schema, and determining if/how ecological communities are shifting with changing climates. To answer these questions, I utilize a combination of manipulative field experiments and large-scale data analyses.