Silvia Maciá (born 1972) is an American

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifi ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

Barry University Barry University is a private Catholic university in Miami Shores, Florida. Founded in 1940 by the Adrian Dominican Sisters, it is one of the largest Catholic universities in the Southeast and is within the territory of the Archdiocese of Mia ...

in Miami Shores, FL. Her research interests involves both laboratory and field work addressing

pipefish Pipefishes or pipe-fishes (Syngnathinae) are a subfamily of small fishes, which, together with the seahorses and seadragons (''Phycodurus'' and '' Phyllopteryx''), form the family Syngnathidae. Description Pipefish look like straight-bodied se ...

mating behavior,

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the or ...

community ecology,

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

grazing ecology and seagrass restoration. Maciá is perhaps best noted for her discovery that

Caribbean reef squid The Caribbean reef squid (''Sepioteuthis sepioidea''), commonly called the reef squid, is a species of small, torpedo-shaped squid with undulating fins that extend nearly the entire length of the body, approximately in length. In 2001, marine b ...

(''Sepioteuthis sepioidea'') can fly. She and her biologist husband Michael Robinson were boating on the north coast of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

when she spotted something fly out of the water. She initially thought they were

flying fish The Exocoetidae are a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes class Actinopterygii, known colloquially as flying fish or flying cod. About 64 species are grouped in seven to nine genera. While they cannot fly in the same way a bird d ...

but after watching for a few seconds, she realized they were squid. Maciá has taught a number of courses, including marine biology, oceanography, tropical marine ecosystems,

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

, environmental science and

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. She has published over 20 academic publications, which have been cited over 500 times, resulting in an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

of 11.

Selected academic publications

*Maciá, S, MP Robinson (2012) Reproductive pattern in the caridean shrimp Gnathophylloides mineri Schmitt (Gnathophyllidae), a symbiont of sea urchins. J. Crustacean Biol. 32: 727-732. *Maciá, S, MP Robinson (2009) Why be cryptic? Choice of host urchin is not based on camouflage in the caridean shrimp Gnathophylloides mineri. Acta Ethologica 12:105-113. *Maciá, S. and MP Robinson (2009) Growth rates of the tropical sea urchins Tripneustes ventricosus and Lytechinus variegatus based on natural recruitment events. Caribb. J. Sci. 45(1): 64-68 *Maciá, S, MP Robinson (2008) Habitat-dependent growth in a Caribbean sea urchin Tripneustes ventricosus: the importance of food type. Helgoland Mar. Res. 62(4): 303-308. *Maciá, S, MP Robinson, A Nalevanko (2007) Experimental dispersal of recovering Diadema antillarum increases grazing intensity and reduces macroalgal abundance on a coral reef. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 348: 173-182. *Maciá, S, MP Robinson (2005) Effects of habitat heterogeneity in seagrass beds on grazing patterns of parrotfishes. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 303: 113-121. *Maciá, S, MP Robinson, P Craze, R Dalton, and JD Thomas (2004

New observations on airborne jet propulsion (flight) in squid with a review of previous reports. J. Molluscan Studies 70(3): 309-311. *Prince, JS, WG LeBlanc, and S Maciá (2004) Design and analysis of multiple choice feeding preference data. Oecologia 138(1): 1-4. *Lirman, D. B Orlando, S Maciá, D Manzello, L Kaufman, P Biber and T Jones (2003) Coral communities of Biscayne Bay, Florida and adjacent offshore areas: Diversity, abundance, distribution, and environmental correlates. Aq. Conserv. 13: 121-135. *Irlandi, E, B Orlando, S Maciá, P Biber, T Jones, L Kaufman, D Lirman, and E Patterson (2002) The influence of freshwater runoff on biomass, morphometrics, and production of Thalassia testudinum. Aq. Bot. 72(1): 67-78. *Maciá, S (2000) The role of sea urchin grazing and drift algal blooms in the community ecology of a subtropical seagrass bed. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 246: 53-67. *Maciá, S and D Lirman (1999) Destruction of Florida Bay seagrasses by a grazing front of sea urchins. Bull. Mar. Sci. 65: 593-601.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macia, Silvia 21st-century American biologists American oceanographers Environmental scientists 1972 births Living people American women academics American women botanists Women ecologists Women marine biologists Women oceanographers Barry University faculty Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science alumni Women in Florida 21st-century American women scientists American science writers