Anita is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Caselle lab at UC Santa Barbara. Anita’s work has focused on the ecology of marine habitat-building species like kelp, seagrasses, and corals. The outputs of her research directly inform a kelp restoration and management plan that is being prepared by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to help resource managers develop scalable solutions to the current kelp crisis in California. She is broadly interested in geographical patterns of species distribution and abundance and how they change through time, and the effect of climate change and other anthropogenic pressures on marine communities. In her free time, Anita enjoys all related to the ocean: swimming, surfing and snorkeling and SCUBA diving. Anita also enjoys cooking, dancing and running with her dogs.