About

Ben Halpern is a marine ecologist by training and a conservation scientist by practice. His work focuses on understanding marine ecosystems and promoting conservation efforts. As a researcher, he is involved in advancing marine ecological science and applying it to real-world conservation challenges, contributing to the sustainable management of marine environments.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Environmental science
• Biology
• Political Science
• Fishery
• Environmental resource management
• Business
• Oceanography
• Geography
• Natural resource economics
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Economics
• Geology
• Environmental planning
• Engineering
• Biotechnology
• Climatology
• Engineering ethics
• Atmospheric sciences
• Environmental engineering

Selected publications

• Priorities for synthesis research in ecology and environmental science

  Ecosphere · 2023 · 23 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Ecology

  Abstract Synthesis research in ecology and environmental science improves understanding, advances theory, identifies research priorities, and supports management strategies by linking data, ideas, and tools. Accelerating environmental challenges increases the need to focus synthesis science on the most pressing questions. To leverage input from the broader research community, we convened a virtual workshop with participants from many countries and disciplines to examine how and where synthesis can address key questions and themes in ecology and environmental science in the coming decade. Seven priority research topics emerged: (1) diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ), (2) human and natural systems, (3) actionable and use‐inspired science, (4) scale, (5) generality, (6) complexity and resilience, and (7) predictability. Additionally, two issues regarding the general practice of synthesis emerged: the need for increased participant diversity and inclusive research practices; and increased and improved data flow, access, and skill‐building. These topics and practices provide a strategic vision for future synthesis in ecology and environmental science.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sustainable fisheries are essential but not enough to ensure well‐being for the world’s fishers

  Fish and Fisheries · 2021 · 55 citations

  • Political Science
  • Business
  • Fishery

  Abstract Effective fisheries management is necessary for the long‐term sustainability of fisheries and the economic benefits that they provide, but focusing only on ecological sustainability risks disregarding ultimate goals related to well‐being that must be achieved through broader social policy. An analysis of global landings data shows that average fishing wages in 36%–67% of countries, home to 69%–95% of fishers worldwide, are likely below their nationally determined minimum living wage (which accounts for costs of food, shelter, clothing, health and education). Furthermore, even if all fisheries in every country were perfectly managed to achieve their Maximum Sustainable Yield, a common sustainability target, average incomes of fishers in up to 49 countries—70% of fishers worldwide—would still not meet minimum living wages. Access to decent work and livelihoods are fundamental human rights, including for all fisherfolk around the world, and strategies to support their well‐being must therefore integrate a much wider set of perspectives, disciplines and institutions. Key first steps for fisheries researchers are to more fully recognize and estimate fisheries benefits to households—including income from women and/or alternative employment, unreported landings, or shadow values of subsistence catch—and to help identify and learn from economic equity outcomes in rebuilt fisheries around the world.

  DOI

• Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate

  Nature · 2021 · 750 citations

  • Environmental resource management
  • Environmental science
  • Business
  DOI

• Environmental performance of blue foods

  Nature · 2021 · 622 citations

  • Fishery
  • Environmental science
  • Ecology
  DOI

• The soundscape of the Anthropocene ocean

  Science · 2021 · 845 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Environmental resource management
  • Oceanography

  Oceans have become substantially noisier since the Industrial Revolution. Shipping, resource exploration, and infrastructure development have increased the anthrophony (sounds generated by human activities), whereas the biophony (sounds of biological origin) has been reduced by hunting, fishing, and habitat degradation. Climate change is affecting geophony (abiotic, natural sounds). Existing evidence shows that anthrophony affects marine animals at multiple levels, including their behavior, physiology, and, in extreme cases, survival. This should prompt management actions to deploy existing solutions to reduce noise levels in the ocean, thereby allowing marine animals to reestablish their use of ocean sound as a central ecological trait in a healthy ocean.

  DOI

• Mapping global inputs and impacts from of human sewage in coastal ecosystems

  PLoS ONE · 2021 · 173 citations

  • Environmental science
  • Ecology
  • Environmental engineering

  Coastal marine ecosystems face a host of pressures from both offshore and land-based human activity. Research on terrestrial threats to coastal ecosystems has primarily focused on agricultural runoff, specifically showcasing how fertilizers and livestock waste create coastal eutrophication, harmful algae blooms, or hypoxic or anoxic zones. These impacts not only harm coastal species and ecosystems but also impact human health and economic activities. Few studies have assessed impacts of human wastewater on coastal ecosystems and community health. As such, we lack a comprehensive, fine-resolution, global assessment of human sewage inputs that captures both pathogens and nutrient flows to coastal waters and the potential impacts on coastal ecosystems. To address this gap, we use a new high-resolution geospatial model to measure and map nitrogen (N) and pathogen-fecal indicator organisms (FIO)-inputs from human sewage for ~135,000 watersheds globally. Because solutions depend on the source, we separate nitrogen and pathogen inputs from sewer, septic, and direct inputs. Our model indicates that wastewater adds 6.2Tg nitrogen into coastal waters, which is approximately 40% of total nitrogen from agriculture. Of total wastewater N, 63% (3.9Tg N) comes from sewered systems, 5% (0.3Tg N) from septic, and 32% (2.0Tg N) from direct input. We find that just 25 watersheds contribute nearly half of all wastewater N, but wastewater impacts most coastlines globally, with sewered, septic, and untreated wastewater inputs varying greatly across watersheds and by country. Importantly, model results find that 58% of coral and 88% of seagrass beds are exposed to wastewater N input. Across watersheds, N and FIO inputs are generally correlated. However, our model identifies important fine-grained spatial heterogeneity that highlight potential tradeoffs and synergies essential for management actions. Reducing impacts of nitrogen and pathogens on coastal ecosystems requires a greater focus on where wastewater inputs vary across the planet. Researchers and practitioners can also overlay these global, high resolution, wastewater input maps with maps describing the distribution of habitats and species, including humans, to determine the where the impacts of wastewater pressures are highest. This will help prioritize conservation efforts.Without such information, coastal ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them will remain imperiled.

  DOI

• Cold range edges of marine fishes track climate change better than warm edges

  Global Change Biology · 2020 · 112 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Climatology
  • Environmental science
  • Atmospheric sciences

  Species around the world are shifting their ranges in response to climate change. To make robust predictions about climate-related colonizations and extinctions, it is vital to understand the dynamics of range edges. This study is among the first to examine annual dynamics of cold and warm range edges, as most global change studies average observational data over space or over time. We analyzed annual range edge dynamics of marine fishes-both at the individual species level and pooled into cold- and warm-edge assemblages-in a multi-decade time-series of trawl surveys conducted on the Northeast US Shelf during a period of rapid warming. We tested whether cold edges show stronger evidence of climate tracking than warm edges (due to non-climate processes or time lags at the warm edge; the biogeography hypothesis or extinction debt hypothesis), or whether they tracked temperature change equally (due to the influence of habitat suitability; the ecophysiology hypothesis). In addition to exploring correlations with regional temperature change, we calculated species- and assemblage-specific sea bottom and sea surface temperature isotherms and used them to predict range edge position. Cold edges shifted further and tracked sea surface and bottom temperature isotherms to a greater degree than warm edges. Mixed-effects models revealed that for a one-degree latitude shift in isotherm position, cold edges shifted 0.47 degrees of latitude, and warm edges shifted only 0.28 degrees. Our results suggest that cold range edges are tracking climate change better than warm range edges, invalidating the ecophysiology hypothesis. We also found that even among highly mobile marine ectotherms in a global warming hotspot, few species are fully keeping pace with climate.

  DOI

• Integrating climate change in ocean planning

  Nature Sustainability · 2020 · 177 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Environmental resource management
  • Environmental planning
  DOI

• Global adoption of novel aquaculture feeds could substantially reduce forage fish demand by 2030

  Nature Food · 2020 · 273 citations

  • Business
  • Natural resource economics
  • Biology
  DOI

Recent grants

• Future directions for synthesis in ecological and environmental science: Learning from the past 25 years to chart the next generation of synthesis

  NSF · $100k · 2019–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Carrie V. Kappel

  National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

  222 shared

• Fiorenza Micheli

  Stanford University

  216 shared

• Reg Watson

  University of Tasmania

  144 shared

• Elizabeth R. Selig

  129 shared

• Halley E. Froehlich

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  126 shared

• Rod Fujita

  Environmental Defense Fund

  117 shared

• John F. Bruno

  Saint Louis University

  117 shared

• Mark Spalding

  University of Cambridge

  106 shared

Labs

• Ben Halpern Research GroupPI

Similar researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara

• Craig Hawkerh-169
• Richard Mayerh-147
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• Steven P. DenBaarsh-124
• Kenneth S. Kosikh-120