Update: Dr. Oken has taken a new position with the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center. For fisheries ecology at UC Davis, check out the Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute and the Center for Watershed Sciences.

The quantitative fisheries ecology lab at UC Davis uses cutting edge mathematical models and statistical tools to study the ecology, conservation, and management of marine fisheries. More specifically, we explore population, food web, and community dynamics in exploited marine ecosystems; evaluate and advance tools for ecosystem-based fisheries management; and develop and test statistical methods in fisheries and ecology.

We study key challenges in the path towards sustainable fisheries in the 21st century. In well-monitored and carefully managed fisheries, including those on the U.S. West Coast, managers are generally able to react to changes in population productivity as these changes occur. Today’s challenge is to better anticipate changes in productivity, particularly long-term changes as populations move and oceans grow warmer, more acidic and less oxygenated, and to develop management strategies that are robust to these changes and continue providing ecosystem services across a range of possible ecological scenarios. For a sense of past research projects and links to papers, check out the lab’s [publications](https://okenk.github.io/pubs/).