My primary interests focus on the composition, production and energy flow of pelagic ecosystems. More simply, my research explores the questions "How do planktonic communities work," "How much energy do they process," "Who’s really important," "How do communities vary temporally and spatially," and increasingly "How do communities change in response to climate." I am also recognized as a taxonomic authority on several groups of zooplankton globally, and for Arctic zooplankton biodiversity in general.

My research efforts have often focused on determining the rates of growth and egg production for the dominant zooplankton (copepod and euphausiid crustaceans), such as in the Gulf of Alaska within the Northeast Pacific GLOBEC program. The ultimate purpose of this research is to establish the rates of secondary production for Alaska waters to help constrain estimates of production of higher tropic levels.