Boston University Department of Biology

Faculty Profiles

Current Research

Our laboratory is devoted to understanding the creation, maintenance, extinction, and conservation of aquatic diversity.

1. Effects of human activities on structure and function of aquatic ecosystems; marine reserves and zoning schemes as adaptive management experiments.

   1. New diagnostics for marine ecosystem health and resilience

   2. Spatial scaling of animal movements, population structure, and food web dynamics

   3. Functional biology of fishes and marine invertebrates

   4. Response of marine communities to the components of climate change

2. Evolutionary Ecology

   1. Macroevolutionary processes in African great lakes cichlids

   2. Spatial effects in diversity maintenance and cladogenesis

   3. Brood capture and parent-offspring relationships in neotropical cichlids

   4. Structural plasticity and life history in tropical rainforest trees

Courses Taught

• BI 260 Marine Biology
• BI 546 Marine Megafaunal Ecology of Stellwagen Bank and Adjacent Waters
• BI 486 Biological Design for Sustainability

Selected Publications

• Drew, JA, GR Allen, L Kaufman, P Barber. Endemism and Regional Color and Genetic Differences in Five Putatively Cosmopolitan Reef Fishes. Conservation Biology 2008 Aug 4;22(4):965-975.
• Michener, RH and LS Kaufman. (2007). Stable isotope ratios as tracers in marine food webs: an update. Chapter 9 In: K Lajtha and R H Michener (Eds.). Stable Isotopes in Ecology and Environmental Science. Blackwell Scientific, Boston. 316pp.
• Kaufman L. (2006). If you build it, will they come? Toward a concrete basis for coral reef gardening. Pp. 119-142 In: Precht, W (Ed.). Coral Reef Restoration Handbook: The Rehabilitation and Preservation of an Ecosystem Under Siege. CRC Press.
• Kaufman LS, Heneman B, Barnes T, Fujita R (2004). Transition from low to high data richness: An experiment in ecosystem-based fishery management from California. Bull. Mar. Sci. 74(3), 693-708.
• Ojwang WO, Kaufman L, Asila AA, Agembe S, Michener B (2004). Isotopic evidence of functional overlap amongst the resilient pelagic fishes of Lake Victoria, Kenya. Hydrobiologia 529, 27-35.
• Sayama H, Kaufman, L, Yaneer B-Y. (2003). Spontaneous Pattern Formation and Genetic Diversity in Habitats with Irregular Geographical Features. Conservation Biology. 17 (3) 893-900.
• Kaufman, L, Schwartz J (2002). Nile perch population dynamics in Lake Victoria: implications for management and conservation. In: Ruth, M and J Lindholm (Eds.). Dynamic Modeling for Marine Conservation. Springer-Verlag, New York. p. 257-313.
• Kaufman, LS. (1992). Catastrophic change in species-rich freshwater ecosystems, the lessons of Lake Victoria. Bioscience 42, 846.