HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Barbara Block is an American marine biologist and Charles & Elizabeth Prothro Professor of Biology in Marine Sciences at the
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
Hopkins Marine Station Hopkins Marine Station is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. It is located south of the university's main campus, in Pacific Grove, California (United States) on the Monterey Peninsula, adjacent to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is h ...
and a co-director of Stanford University's Tuna Research and Conservation Center, with the
Monterey Bay Aquarium Monterey Bay Aquarium is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit public aquarium in Monterey, California. Known for its regional focus on the marine habitats of Monterey Bay, it was the first to exhibit a living kelp forest when it opened in Octob ...
. She has published numerous bodies of work throughout her career in marine biology and chemistry, mainly focusing on the biology and chemistry of metabolism in different tuna and shark species. Additionally, she has helped develop two new types of electronic tags for large pelagic predators in order to track the migrations of large oceanic predator species.


Biography and career

Block began her higher education by obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in
Zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
from the
University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...
in 1980. Under the mentorship of Dr. Francis Carey, a late prominent figure in the study of tuna biology, Block began her oceanographic career at
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...
. She continued on to pursue a Ph.D in 1986 at
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
, until moving onward to becoming a professor herself. She began as an assistant professor at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
and joined the Stanford faculty in 1994. Since then, she has spent multiple decades researching oceanic predators and teaching classes, specifically for the Stanford at Sea program. She has also established and lead the Tuna Research and Conservation Center, which is a unique center that focuses on the study of tuna biology and physiology backed by resources from both Stanford University and the
Monterey Bay Aquarium Monterey Bay Aquarium is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit public aquarium in Monterey, California. Known for its regional focus on the marine habitats of Monterey Bay, it was the first to exhibit a living kelp forest when it opened in Octob ...
. She currently spends time running the Dr. Barbara Block Lab at the Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey Bay, where she and other researchers are involved with projects such as the Blue Serengeti Initiative, the Tag-A-Giant project, the Animal Telemetry Network, and the management of the Tuna Research and Conservation Center. Involved in the Census of Marine Life, Block was also the Chief Scientist for the Tagging of Pacific Predators program (TOPP). She continues to explore thermal physiology, ecological physiology, tuna biology, and open-ocean predator behavior. In addition to research and academia, Block has been involved in multiple films and documentaries. She has contributed to the recurring documentary series ''Nature'', and has helped create the documentaries ''Mission'' ''Blue'' (2014) and ''Blue Serengeti'' (2016).


Research contributions

Block has worked with large pelagic fish, especially open-ocean
tuna A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bul ...
and
billfish The billfish are a group (Xiphioidea) of saltwater fish, saltwater predatory fish characterised by prominent pointed beak, bills (rostrum (anatomy), rostra), and by their large size; some are longer than . Extant billfish include sailfish and m ...
, for much of her career. She has done extensive work to improve the quality and scale of tagging operations in order to better analyze large scale movements of these species throughout different oceans. She has specifically contributed to two different new kinds of electronic tags, and has utilized professional relationships with commercial and recreational fishermen to facilitate more efficient tagging processes. Block's three main types of contributions to research in her field are in tracking large-scale migrations and populations of ocean predators, researching temperature's effect on physiology of large pelagic predators, and investigating the effect of movement on the metabolism of these large ocean species.


Migration and population

Block's research has added significant contributions to the study of migration and population in oceanic ecosystems. This field is particularly hard to study because of the challenges of effective and ethical tagging of marine species. With new types of electronic tags, Block and her team have been able to not only track distances, but also qualitatively measure the tilt and velocity of the animal. This information has many implications for research, and has been important towards studies that investigate how these animals’ physiology changes throughout the duration of a long swim. For example, one study showed that white sharks maintain energy for long distance journeys by using up their lipid reserves in their livers, thereby changing the tilt at which they swim, which can be detected by the electronic tags. In addition, Block has embarked on several projects to track large populations of oceanic predators, resulting in new discoveries of certain population congregations in different locations such as the Caribbean Sea.


Temperature and physiology

Block has published and helped conduct multiple research studies about the effect of temperature changes on physiology of a variety of species. Temperature can have varying effects on organisms, and is especially hard to study for large oceanic species in the wild, so much of the research must be conducted in controlled environments like in the Tuna Research and Conservation Center, where Block and her team can make specific measurements and observations of bluefin tuna and other large oceanic species. Some of the findings through this research have been in identifying the genes responsible for temperature regulation, and the gene expression controlling those genes.


Movement and metabolism

To study metabolism in the wild, Block and researchers have been able to use specific types of tags with speed- and temperature-measuring capabilities, where they can make a correlation between the speed of the animal with the amount of oxygen entering through the gills. They can compare this information to the temperature of the environment to determine the rate of metabolism and need for oxygen.


Awards

*Rolex Award for Enterprise, Rolex (2012) *Walter B. Cannon Award,
American Physiological Society The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology, or other health professions. Its mission is to support research ...
(2008) *Pew Marine Conservation Fellow,
Pew Foundation The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948. Pew's stated mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, and invigorating civic life". ...
(1997) *MacArthur Fellow,
MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...
(1996) *Presidents Medal, Society for Experimental Biology, London (1994) *Presidential Young Investigator Award,
National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
(1989) *Benchley Award for Ocean Science


Works

* "Philopatry and migration of Pacific white sharks". Jorgensen SJ, Reeb CA, Chapple TK, Anderson S, Perle C, Van Sommeran SR, Fritz-Cope C, Brown AC, Klimley AP, Block BA. ''Proc Biol Sci''. 2010; 277 (1682): 679-88 * "Seasonal movements, aggregations and diving behavior of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) revealed with archival tags". Walli A, Teo SL, Boustany A, Farwell CJ, Williams T, Dewar H, Prince E, Block BA. ''PLoS One''. 2009; 4 (7): e6151 * "Heterologous hybridization to a complementary DNA microarray reveals the effect of thermal acclimation in the endothermic bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis)". Castilho PC, Buckley BA, Somero G, Block BA. ''Mol Ecol''. 2009; 18 (10): 2092-102 * "Effect of thermal acclimation on action potentials and sarcolemmal K+ channels from Pacific bluefin tuna cardiomyocytes". Galli GL, Lipnick MS, Block BA. ''Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol''. 2009; 297 (2): R502-9 * "Influence of swimming speed on metabolic rates of juvenile pacific bluefin tuna and yellowfin tuna". Blank JM, Farwell CJ, Morrissette JM, Schallert RJ, Block BA. ''Physiol Biochem Zool''. 2007 Mar-Apr; 80 (2): 167-77 *"Travelling light: white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) rely on body lipid stores to power ocean-basin scale migration". ''Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society'' Del Raye, G., Jorgensen, S. J., Krumhansl, K., Ezcurra, J. M., Block, B. A. *"Temperature dependent pre- and postprandial activity in Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis)". ''Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology''Gleiss, A. C., Dale, J. J., Klinger, D. H., Estess, E. E., Gardner, L. D., Machado, B., Norton, A. G., Farwell, C., Block, B. A. 2019 *"Movements of pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) in the Eastern North Pacific revealed with archival tags". ''International Symposium on Climate Impacts on Oceanic Top Predators (CLIOTOP)''Boustany, A. M., Matteson, R., Castleton, M., Farwell, C., Block, B. A.


References


External links


Tuna Research and Conservation CenterTag a Giant blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Block, Barbara Living people American marine biologists Stanford University School of Medicine faculty MacArthur Fellows Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) American women marine biologists Duke University alumni University of Vermont alumni