Brian Helmuth, Ph.D.
Professor - Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences & School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University | Faculty Affiliate, Global Resilience Institute
Boston, MA, UNITED STATES
Professor Helmuth focuses on ecological impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems.
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Biography
My research and teaching focus on predicting the likely ecological impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems, and on the development of products that are scientifically accurate, understandable, and useful by a diverse array of stakeholders. A major goal of this approach is to inform decision makers with scientifically accurate and useful forecasts. While much of my work has focused on North American rocky intertidal ecosystems, my students and I also collaborate with colleagues around the world, including Australia, Brunei; Canada; China; Hong Kong; Iraq; Italy; South Africa; and the U.K.
Our work has shown some surprising results, and has suggested that our expectations of where to look for the effects of climate change in nature can be more complex than previously anticipated. For example, our research has shown that along the Pacific coast of the U.S., animal temperatures at sites in Oregon and Washington can be as hot or hotter than sites much farther to the south in California, due to the complex interaction of climate and tides in the region. This complexity suggests that unless we know where and when to look for impacts of climate change, many early impacts could go unnoticed.
My lab group frequently collaborates with K-12 teachers and students, and we work to develop cutting edge educational materials with informal educators such as the Museum of Science, Boston.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Marine Ecology
Ecological Forecasting
Physiology and Ecology of Marine Organisms
Environmental Policy
Sustainability
Education (3)
University of Washington: Ph.D., Zoology 1997
Northeastern University: M.S., Marine Biology 1991
Cornell University: B.S., Biology (Ecology, Evolution and Systematics) 1989
Links (2)
Media Appearances (5)
Drones for research: Explaining Northeastern's policy
News @ Northeastern
2018-03-14
Another professor, Brian Helmuth, is using aerial drones to map the topography of shorelines. The goal is to better understand how intertidal communities recover following heat waves. He explained that at low tide, marine animals such as barnacles and mussels seek shelter from the sun in tiny crevices along the shoreline and beach. They use drone photos to build 3-D models of shorelines in order to study how these natural systems respond, particularly during heat extreme events, and determine whether they can mimic the resilience of natural shorelines using artificial structures, in scenarios where seawalls are necessary for protection of property and life...
To understand climate change, look at it from a mussel's perspective
PRI
2017-04-25
“As humans, we have this really biased view of the world. Well over 95 percent of the organisms on Earth, they’re completely dependent on the ambient environment for their temperature,” says Northeastern University marine biologist Brian Helmuth...
Professor to Speak at UN General Assembly on Climate Change, Sustainable Development
News @ Northeastern
2017-03-23
Northeastern University professor and climate change biologist Brian Helmuth will speak Thursday afternoon at a high-level meeting at the United Nations headquarters, where he will highlight his research and participate in a discussion on efforts worldwide to address climate change and meet global sustainable development goals...
Robot Shellfish May Tell Us About Climate Change’s Impact on Marine Species
Smithsonian
2016-11-01
The little black data loggers, formed from polyester resin, have been precisely engineered by Brian Helmuth and his lab at Northeastern University to mimic the mussels already living there, a few of which researchers plucked out to make space for the fake ones. They’re here for a study of climate change, and, more precisely, its effect on one of the most important species found in the ocean...
'Robomussels' used to monitor climate change
Science Daily
2016-10-18
Tiny robots have been helping researchers study how climate change affects biodiversity. Developed by Northeastern University scientist Brian Helmuth, the "robomussels" have the shape, size, and color of actual mussels, with miniature built-in sensors that track temperatures inside the mussel beds...
Articles (3)
Pido: Predictive Delay Optimization for Intertidal Wireless Sensor Networks
Sensors
Xinyan Zhou, Xiaoyu Ji, Bin Wang, Yushi Cheng, Zhuoran Ma, Francis Choi, Brian Helmuth, Wenyuan Xu
2018 Intertidal habitats are among the harshest environments on the planet, and have emerged as a model system for exploring the ecological impacts of global climate change. Deploying reliable instrumentation to measure environmental conditions such as temperature is challenging in this environment. The application of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) shows considerable promise as a means of optimizing continuous data collection, but poor link quality and unstable connections between nodes, caused by harsh physical environmental conditions, bring about a delay problem...
How ocean acidification can benefit calcifiers
Current Biology
Sean D Connell, Zoë A Doubleday, Sarah B Hamlyn, Nicole R Foster, Christopher DG Harley, Brian Helmuth, Brendan P Kelaher, Ivan Nagelkerken, Gianluca Sarà, Bayden D Russell
2017 Reduction in seawater pH due to rising levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2) in the world's oceans is a major force set to shape the future of marine ecosystems and the ecological services they provide [1, 2]. In particular, ocean acidification is predicted to have a detrimental effect on the physiology of calcifying organisms [3]. Yet, the indirect effects of ocean acidification on calcifying organisms, which may counter or exacerbate direct effects, is uncertain...
Remote sensing for biodiversity
The GEO Handbook on Biodiversity Observation Networks
Gary N Geller, Patrick N Halpin, Brian Helmuth, Erin L Hestir, Andrew Skidmore, Michael J Abrams, Nancy Aguirre, Mary Blair, Elizabeth Botha, Matthew Colloff, Terry Dawson, Janet Franklin, Ned Horning, Craig James, William Magnusson, Maria J Santos, Steven R Schill, Kristen Williams
2017 Remote sensing (RS)—taking images or other measurements of Earth from above—provides a unique perspective on what is happening on the Earth and thus plays a special role in biodiversity and conservation applications. The periodic repeat coverage of satellite-based RS is particularly useful for monitoring change and so is essential for understanding trends, and also provides key input into assessments, international agreements, and conservation management. Historically, RS data have often been expensive and hard to use, but changes over the last decade have resulted in massive amounts of global data being available at no cost, as well as significant (if not yet complete) simplification of access and use...
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