Sibel Bargu Ates

Sibel Bargu Ates is a Shell Professor in Oceanography/Wetland Studies in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University's College of the Coast & Environment. She holds a Ph.D. and Master's from the University of California at Santa Cruz (2001, 1998) and a Bachelor's from Istanbul University (1994).

Research Interests: Her work focuses on freshwater, estuarine, and marine phytoplankton ecology, harmful algal blooms (HABs), food web contamination, phytoplankton-zooplankton interactions, and global climate change. She investigates how environmental stressors like river diversions, crude oil exposure, and nutrient dynamics affect coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana estuaries.

Publication Trends: Over 2013–2020, her research spans phytoplankton responses to oil spills, iron bioavailability, river diversions, and nutrient management. Key themes include HABs, ecosystem modeling, and environmental toxicology, often involving multidisciplinary approaches integrating fieldwork, lab experiments, and computational modeling.

Professional Affiliations:

• Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) since 2017
• The Oceanography Society (TOS) since 2009
• International Society for the Study of Harmful Algae (ISSA) since 2006
• American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) since 2001

Advising: She has mentored students like A.J. Mallozzi, A.V. Starr, K. Ozhan, and J. Riekenberg, who led publications on topics such as crude oil impacts on phytoplankton, gene expression in diatoms, and river diversion effects on coastal ecosystems.