Paul Kuykendall Dayton (born April 8, 1941 in
Tucson, Arizona) is a biological
oceanographer and marine
ecologist at the
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...
. Dayton works in
benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
ecology, marine conservation, evolution, natural history, and general ecology.
During a 35-year career at Scripps, Dayton has researched coastal
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
habitats and the rocky shore habitats of
Washington in order to better understand marine
ecosystems. He has also documented the environmental impacts of overfishing, and phenomena such as
El Niño on coastal ecology.
Dayton is the only person to win both the George Mercer Award (1974) and the WS Cooper Award (2000) from the
Ecological Society of America. In 2002, he received the Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Underwater Sciences; in 2004 he was honored with the
Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
from the
American Society of Naturalists, and in 2006 was the first recipient of the
Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology. Dayton has been director of
The Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Conservancy (founded as The Delta Corporation) is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States. The organization formulates ocean policy at the federal and state government levels based on peer review ...
and the National Research Council Panel on Marine Protected Areas.
He has been a frequent contributor to
''Science'' magazine.
Dayton's 1971 paper titled "Competition, disturbance and community organization: The provision and subsequent utilization of space in a rocky intertidal community" in ''
Ecological Monographs''
has been cited over 1800 times as of .
Education
Dayton received a
Bachelor of Science from the
University of Arizona,
Tucson, in 1963. He then earned a doctorate in
zoology at the
University of Washington under
Robert T. Paine, known for the
Keystone species
A keystone species is a species which has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, a concept introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in maintaini ...
concept.
References
External links
Lab websiteScripps' Paul Dayton Honored with New Ecology Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dayton, Paul K.
American oceanographers
Scripps Institution of Oceanography faculty
Living people
1941 births
Winners of the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology