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Ecology and Evolution
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
103
Citations
46986
World Ranking
233
National Ranking
97

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2009 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Overview

Steven D. Gaines is affiliated with the University of California, Santa Barbara in the United States. Their research primarily focuses on Environmental Science, with significant contributions that span Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Oceanography, and Aquatic Science.

The main topics covered in their work include:

  • Marine and fisheries research
  • Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies
  • Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
  • Coastal and Marine Management
  • Aquaculture Nutrition and Growth
  • Marine and coastal plant biology
  • Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics

Steven D. Gaines has published extensively in several key scientific venues. Frequent publication outlets include:

  • Nature
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Fish and Fisheries
  • Marine Policy
  • Global Change Biology

Selected recent papers demonstrate a focus on marine biodiversity, ecology, and fisheries management. These include:

  • "Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate," 2021, Nature
  • "Ecological impacts of human-induced animal behaviour change," 2020, Ecology Letters
  • "Calibrating Environmental DNA Metabarcoding to Conventional Surveys for Measuring Fish Species Richness," 2020, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
  • "Let more big fish sink: Fisheries prevent blue carbon sequestration-half in unprofitable areas," 2020, Science Advances
  • "Cold range edges of marine fishes track climate change better than warm edges," 2020, Global Change Biology

In collaborative research efforts, Steven D. Gaines has frequently co-authored papers with several scientists, including:

  • Darcy Bradley
  • Reniel B. Cabral
  • Juan Mayorga
  • Christopher Costello
  • Benjamin S. Halpern

Recognition of their contributions includes being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2009.

Best Publications

  • Biological Effects Within No-Take Marine Reserves: A global Synthesis

    Sarah E. Lester;Benjamin S. Halpern;Kirsten Grorud-Colvert;Jane Lubchenco

  • Recruitment dynamics in complex life cycles

    Jonathan Roughgarden;Steven Gaines;Hugh Possingham

  • PROPAGULE DISPERSAL IN MARINE AND TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS: A COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE

    Unknown

  • Ecological and evolutionary insights from species invasions

    Dov F. Sax;John J. Stachowicz;James H. Brown;John F. Bruno

  • Larval settlement rate: A leading determinant of structure in an ecological community of the marine intertidal zone

    S. Gaines;J. Roughgarden

  • Can catch shares prevent fisheries collapse

    Christopher Costello;Steven D. Gaines;John Lynham

  • An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean

    Benjamin S. Halpern;Catherine Longo;Darren Hardy;Karen L. McLeod

  • Temperature control of larval dispersal and the implications for marine ecology, evolution, and conservation

    Mary I. O'Connor;John F. Bruno;Steven D. Gaines;Benjamin S. Halpern

  • PLUGGING A HOLE IN THE OCEAN: THE EMERGING SCIENCE OF MARINE RESERVES1

    Jane Lubchenco;Stephen R. Palumbi;Steven D. Gaines;Sandy Andelman

  • Designing marine reserve networks for both conservation and fisheries management

    Steven D. Gaines;Crow White;Mark H. Carr;Stephen R. Palumbi

  • Species diversity: from global decreases to local increases

    Dov F. Sax;Steven D. Gaines

  • Status and Solutions for the World’s Unassessed Fisheries

    Christopher Costello;Daniel Ovando;Ray Hilborn;Steven D. Gaines

  • Species invasions and extinction : The future of native biodiversity on islands

    Dov F. Sax;Steven D. Gaines

  • Marine community ecology

    Mark D. Bertness;Steven D. Gaines;Mark E. Hay

  • The ‘abundant centre’ distribution: to what extent is it a biogeographical rule?

    Unknown

  • Global fishery prospects under contrasting management regimes

    Christopher Costello;Daniel Ovando;Tyler Clavelle;C. Kent Strauss

  • Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate

    Enric Sala;Juan Mayorga;Darcy Bradley;Reniel B. Cabral

  • A Unified Approach to Marine Plant-Herbivore Interactions. I. Populations and Communities

    Unknown

  • Species Invasions Exceed Extinctions on Islands Worldwide: A Comparative Study of Plants and Birds

    Dov F. Sax;Steven D. Gaines;James H. Brown

  • Lagrangian descriptions of marine larval dispersion

    D. A. Siegel;B. P. Kinlan;B. Gaylord;S. D. Gaines

  • Temperature or Transport? Range Limits in Marine Species Mediated Solely by Flow

    Brian Gaylord;Steven D. Gaines

  • Moving beyond assumptions to understand abundance distributions across the ranges of species

    Raphael D. Sagarin;Raphael D. Sagarin;Steven D. Gaines;Brian Gaylord

  • SOME IMPLICATIONS OF DIRECT POSITIVE INTERACTIONS FOR COMMUNITY SPECIES DIVERSITY

    Sally D. Hacker;Steven D. Gaines

  • Population models for marine reserve design: A retrospective and prospective synthesis

    Leah R. Gerber;Louis W. Botsford;Alan Hastings;Hugh P. Possingham

  • Mapping the global potential for marine aquaculture

    Rebecca R. Gentry;Halley E. Froehlich;Dietmar Grimm;Peter Kareiva

Frequent Co-Authors

Christopher Costello
Christopher Costello University of California, Santa Barbara
Benjamin S. Halpern
Benjamin S. Halpern University of California, Santa Barbara
Robert R. Warner
Robert R. Warner University of California, Santa Barbara
Sarah E. Lester
Sarah E. Lester Florida State University
Jennifer E. Caselle
Jennifer E. Caselle University of California, Santa Barbara
Jane Lubchenco
Jane Lubchenco Oregon State University
Paolo Guidetti
Paolo Guidetti Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Sylvaine Giakoumi
Sylvaine Giakoumi University of Queensland
David A. Siegel
David A. Siegel University of California, Santa Barbara
Laura E. Dee
Laura E. Dee University of Colorado Boulder

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