معرفی
Michelle María Early Capistrán is a Research Fellow and David H. Smith Conservation Fellow at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, working in Larry Crowder's lab. Her research bridges marine ecology and cultural anthropology, focusing on improving conservation practices through integration of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) with scientific methods. She collaborates with coastal communities in Baja California to study endangered green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and climate change impacts.
Education: PhD in Marine Science & Limnology (UNAM, 2021), MS in Marine Science & Limnology (UNAM, 2014), Licenciatura in Humanities (Universidad de las Américas Puebla, 2009). Current projects include developing species distribution models for green turtles under climate scenarios using LEK and citizen science data, in collaboration with NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center.
Research emphasizes transdisciplinary approaches, combining ethnographic methods with ecological monitoring and computational modeling. Key areas include marine protected area effectiveness, historical ecology, and human-wildlife coexistence. Over a decade of fieldwork with Baja California fishing communities has produced long-term datasets on turtle abundance and fishery practices.
Publications highlight innovative frameworks like 'Colaboratories' for inclusive marine conservation and demonstrate how Indigenous knowledge systems can address climate sentinel species monitoring gaps. Awards include prestigious David H. Smith Conservation Fellowship (2021–present).
Advising and grants: While no advisees are listed, her work engages interdisciplinary teams and leverages federal agency partnerships. Current projects focus on climate-resilient marine management strategies and historical reconstruction of fisheries through archival and oral history methods. Lab affiliations include Stanford's Crowder Lab and NOAA collaborations.
Labs/Teams: Primary affiliation is the Crowder Lab at Hopkins Marine Station, collaborating with NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and international networks in social oceanography. Methodological innovations include integrating qualitative and quantitative data streams to create actionable conservation tools.
