Email: jenkkhof@berkeley.edu

Phone: (510) 642-1391

"I am a marine invertebrate behavioral ecologist. I am interested in how the behaviors of marine invertebrates are altered by environmental change, how that affects population structure, how that in turn affects the community, and how all this can be affected by the evolutionary history of the ecosystems. My thesis will focus on the Channel Island subtidal kelp forest community in southern California. There are two sister octopus species in this habitat that are nearly identical except for life history strategy. I will look at how life history strategy plays a role in each species' phenotypic plasticity — specifically predatory escape behavior — and attempt to determine how this will allow each species to respond to environmental change. Namely, I will explore their responses to the reintroduction of one of their top predators, the sea otter, as climate change affects the population ranges of all the organisms of this community."