Elizabeth Harvey

Elizabeth Harvey is an Associate Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), specializing in marine microbial ecology. Her research focuses on understanding mechanisms driving microbial mortality, phytoplankton population dynamics, and their impacts on biogeochemical cycles. She leads the Harvey Lab, which integrates molecular to ecosystem-scale approaches to study interactions between marine microbes. Dr. Harvey teaches courses including Biological Oceanography, Microbial Ecology, and graduate seminars.

Education: PhD (University of Rhode Island), MS (Western Washington University), BS (University of Maine). Research interests include microbial networks, harmful algal blooms, and the role of chemical signaling in planktonic communities. She actively mentors undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers.

Laboratory activities emphasize fieldwork in coastal and open-ocean environments, combining microscopy, genomic techniques, and biogeochemical analyses. Recent studies investigate microzooplankton grazing on coccolithophores, Syndiniales parasite dynamics, and the ecological impacts of bacterial quorum-sensing molecules.

Teaching responsibilities span foundational biology courses to advanced topics in oceanography. Her work bridges fundamental ecological research with applied questions in climate change and marine ecosystem health.