Jeffrey Polovina is an American marine scientist. He is known for creating the marine ecosystem model

Ecopath Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) is a free and open source ecosystem modelling software suite, initially started at NOAA by Jeffrey Polovina, but has since primarily been developed at the formerly UBC Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbi ...

Early life

Jeffrey Joseph Polovina was born on September 30, 1948 in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...

. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, and received his PhD in Mathematical Statistics from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Career

Polovina began his academic career teaching at

University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

, later moving to the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

to conduct Sea Grant-funded aquaculture research. In 1979 he joined the

National Marine Fisheries Service The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the ste ...

, Honolulu Lab which later became the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center,

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

(NOAA), where he served as a senior scientist and the Chief of Ecosystem and Oceanography Division. In 2010 he received the Wooster Award from the North Pacific Marine Sciences Organization (PICES). He was awarded two Fulbright Senior Research Awards for work in Kenya and the Galapagos. He retired from NOAA in 2016 but continues to serve as an affiliate faculty in the Marine Biology Program at the

Research

His research focuses on understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of marine ecosystems with an emphasis on high tropic levels. In the early 1980s Polovina was part of a multi-disciplinary team studying the coral reef ecosystem at

French Frigate Shoals The French Frigate Shoals ( Hawaiian: Kānemilohai) is the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Its name commemorates French explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse, who nearly lost two frigates when attempting to navigate the sh ...

in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. In order to describe the energy flow of the coral reef ecosystem Polovina developed the Ecopath Model. The model was later further expanded by colleagues at the Fisheries Center at the University of British Columbia and has become a global standard for marine ecosystem modeling. In 2007, the model was named one of the ten biggest scientific breakthroughs in the first 200 years of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Polovina had used electronic tags and remotely-sensed oceanographic data to understand how large pelagic animals use oceanic habitats. This work led to identifying the trans-Pacific Transition Zone Chlorophyll Front (TZCF) as important Pacific Ocean mid-latitude forage and migration habitat. He used climate and ecosystem models and data to identify potential fishing and climate impacts on marine ecosystems. He has estimated that the Earth's least productive waters are growing at a rate of between 1 and 4 percent annually. He served as an author for the Hawaii Chapter of the 4th National Climate Assessment. He has also provided learning materials for PBS and provided other public educational services.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polovina, Jeffrey 1948 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni People from Troy, New York Scientists from New York (state) 20th-century American scientists 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American mathematicians Carnegie Mellon University alumni