EcoPhysiology of Diving Air-breathing Predators – EcoDAP

EcoPhysiology of Diving Air-breathing Predators – EcoDAP

Dr Luis Huckstadt

I am a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter in Cornwall (England).

My research is motivated by my interest in understanding the role that large predators, particularly marine mammals, play in marine ecosystems, especially in areas more susceptible to human-induced climatic change such as upwelling and polar marine systems. To help to answer these questions, I use Biologging technologies and Stable Isotope Analyses to improve our understanding of the link between changing environments and the at-sea behaviours of marine top predators.

​I was born and raised in Venezuela to Chilean parents and moved to Chile in my teens. After getting my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Marine Biology and Oceanography in Chile at the Universidad de Concepcion, I got awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and moved to the United States to pursue my PhD, where I lived for 15 years as an immigrant scientist, and I now live in England since late 2021.

Education

2005 – 12        PhD Ocean Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, USA

2000 – 04        MSc Oceanography, Universidad de Concepción, Chile

1995 – 00        BSc Marine Biology Universidad de Concepción, Chile

Teaching

BIO3444 – Ecology, Behaviour and Conservation in Wild Places: The Forests and Oceans of Yukon and Alaska

BIOM4033 – Marine Vertebrate Ecology and Conservation

Last 10 publications
  1. Becker, S.L., Boyd, C., Handley, J.M., Raymond, B., Reisinger, R., Ropert-Coudert, Y., Apelgren, N., Davies, T.E., Lea, M.A., Santos, M., Trathan, P.N., Van de Putte, A.P., Huckstadt, L.A., Charrassin, J.B. & Brooks, C.M. (2025) Scaling up ocean conservation through recognition of key biodiversity areas in the Southern Ocean from multispecies tracking data. Conserv Biol, 39, e14345.10.1111/cobi.14345
  2. Fraleigh, D., Costa, D., Cabrol, J., McDonald, B., Crocker, D., Fleming, A., Goebel, M. & Hückstädt, L. (2025) Intra-annual consistent diet of lanternfish and krill in adult female southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina from the South Georgia population. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 753, 175-189
  3. Roman, J., Abraham, A.J., Kiszka, J.J., Costa, D.P., Doughty, C.E., Friedlaender, A., Huckstadt, L.A., Marcondes, M., Wetsel, E. & Pershing, A.J. (2025) Migrating baleen whales transport high-latitude nutrients to tropical and subtropical ecosystems. Nat Commun, 16, 2125.10.1038/s41467-025-56123-2
  4. Sequeira, A.M.M., Rodriguez, J.P., Marley, S.A., Calich, et al. (2025) Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets. Science, 388, 1086-1097.10.1126/science.adl0239
  5. Boyd, P.W., Arrigo, K.R., Ardyna, M., Halfter, S., Huckstadt, L., Kuhn, A.M., Lannuzel, D., Neukermans, G., Novaglio, C. & Shadwick, E.H. (2024) The role of biota in the Southern Ocean carbon cycle. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 5, 390-408
  6. Costa, D.P., Holser, R.R., Keates, T.R., Adachi, T., Beltran, R.S., Champagne, C.D., Crocker, D.E., Favilla, A.B., Fowler, M.A., Gallo-Reynoso, J.P., Goetsch, C., Hassrick, J.L., Huckstadt, L.A., et al. (2024) Two decades of three-dimensional movement data from adult female northern elephant seals. Sci Data, 11, 1357.10.1038/s41597-024-04084-4
  7. Frantz, B.H., Sepulveda, M., Garcia-Reyes, M., Vega, R., Palacios, D.M., Bedrinana-Romano, L., Huckstadt, L.A., Santos-Carvallo, M., Davis, J.D. & Hines, E. (2024) Combining potential and realized distribution modeling of telemetry data for a bycatch risk assessment. Ecol Evol, 14, e11541.10.1002/ece3.11541
  8. Hill, S.L., Atkinson, A., Arata, J.A., Belcher, A., Nash, S.B., Bernard, K.S., Cleary, A., et al. (2024) Observing change in pelagic animals as sampling methods shift: the case of Antarctic krill. Frontiers in Marine Science, 11, 1307402
  9. Pearson, A.B., Huckstadt, L.A., Kinsey, S.T., Schmitt, T.L., Robeck, T.R., St Leger, J., Ponganis, P.J. & Tift, M.S. (2024) Relationship between red blood cell lifespan and endogenous carbon monoxide in the common bottlenose dolphin and beluga. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 326, R134-R146.10.1152/ajpregu.00172.2023
  10. Peterson, S.H., Peterson, M.G., Ackerman, J.T., Debier, C., Goetsch, C., Holser, R.R., Huckstadt, L.A., Johnson, J.C., Keates, T.R., McDonald, B.I., McHuron, E.A. & Costa, D.P. (2024) Foraging behavior and age affect maternal transfer of mercury to northern elephant seal pups. Sci Rep, 14, 4693.10.1038/s41598-024-54527-6