Rebecca Shipe

Rebecca Shipe serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, where she teaches courses including ENVIRON 188B (Sustainable LA – Grand Challenges URSP), ENVIRON 14 (Ocean Environment), and LIFESCI 1 (Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity). Her research centers on marine phytoplankton ecology with specialization in diatom physiology and biogeochemical cycling.

Her primary research focuses on silicon cycling in marine systems, diatom contributions to global carbon export, and harmful algal bloom dynamics in coastal ecosystems. She emphasizes species-specific processes in natural plankton communities and employs multidisciplinary approaches spanning laboratory experiments and oceanographic fieldwork in both open ocean and nearshore environments. Key interests include nutrient physiology responses to climatic events like ENSO cycles and anthropogenic impacts on phytoplankton productivity.

Analysis of her 13 publications (1999-2013) reveals sustained investigation of eastern boundary current systems, particularly the Santa Barbara Basin and Santa Monica Bay. Her work demonstrates how physical forcing mechanisms—including El Niño events, river plumes, and stormwater effluents—regulate diatom dynamics and biogeochemical processes, with implications for ocean carbon sequestration and coastal management.

No scientific awards or student advisement information is publicly documented. Her field research methodology includes participation in oceanographic cruises to study phytoplankton communities and biogeochemical fluxes across diverse marine environments, as highlighted in media coverage of her work on bioluminescent waves and wastewater spill impacts in Southern California.