Sue Lowerre-Barbieri

Research Professor, Marine Fisheries Ecology

Sue Lowerre-Barbieri leads the Movement Ecology and Reproductive Resilience (MERR) laboratory, a science collaborative between UF SFFGS and the FWC Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. MERR integrates academic and government expertise, providing graduate student opportunities to draw on both, while working on research projects focused on how emerging understanding of marine fish spatial and reproductive ecology can help inform fisheries management.

• Research Interests

  Sue’s research focuses on understanding reproductive resilience in marine fish. The reproductive resilience paradigm is an eco-evolutionary conceptual model that assumes marine fish evolved strategies for reproductive success in the marine realm that differ from terrestrial animals. Reproductive resilience is defined as “the capacity of a population to maintain the level of reproductive success needed to result in long-term population stability despite disturbances such as environmental perturbations and fishing”. A key difference in marine fish is the role movement strategies and life cycle space use play in reproductive success, as well as vulnerability to fishing. Her research is collaborative, drawing on a wide range of expertise, and uses models and multiple data sources, including acoustic telemetry, passive acoustics, histology, and genetics.

  The MERR lab works closely with fishers, scientists, and managers and collaborates with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center on issues associated with fish reproduction. Sue leads the Gulf of Mexico telemetry network, iTAG (Integrative Tracking of Aquatic Animals in the Gulf of Mexico), a collaborative effort with the Gulf of Mexico Ocean Observing System and the Ocean Tracking Network. iTAG currently has more than 200 members, from three countries, matching hundreds of thousands of detections to iTAG members’ animals each year from sea turtles to white sharks.

• Education

  • PhD, Population Dynamics, College of William and Mary/Virginia Institute of Marine Science, 1994
  • BA, Biology and English, University of Virginia, 1984

• Publications

  Link to Google Scholar

  Lowerre-Barbieri, S.K., Brown-Peterson, N.J., Wyanski, D.M., Moncrief-Cox, H.E., Kolmos, K.J., Menendez, H.S., Barnett, B.K. and Friess, C. A unified framework and terminology for reproductive traits integral to understanding fish population productivity. Marine and Coastal Fisheries, 15(6), e10276..

  Tringali MD, Lowerre-Barbieri SK (2023) Reproductive resilience or sweepstakes recruitment? Assessing drivers of lifetime reproductive success in exploited marine fish. Fish and Fisheries 24:1048-1066.

  Ospina-Alvarez A, Vásquez SI, Catalán IA, Lowerre-Barbieri S, Arteaga M, Juan Sd (2022) A reproductive resilience index for pelagic fish in the southern Humboldt Current Large Marine Ecosystem. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 79:2138-2159.

  Matley JK, Klinard NV, Barbosa Martins AP, Aarestrup K, Aspillaga E, Cooke SJ, Cowley PD, Heupel MR, Lowe CG, Lowerre-Barbieri SK, Mitamura H, Moore J-S, Simpfendorfer CA, Stokesbury MJW, Taylor MD, Thorstad EB, Vandergoot CS, Fisk AT (2022) Global trends in aquatic animal tracking with acoustic telemetry. Trends in ecology & evolution 37:79-94

  Lowerre-Barbieri, S., Friess, C., Griffin, L., Morley, D., Bickford, J., Acosta, A., Addis, D., Block, B., Skomal, G., Grubbs, D., Hammershlag, N., Kroetz, A., Gervasi, C., Poulakis, G., Danylchuk, A., Basso-Hull, K., Gardiner, J., Casselberry, G., Ambercrombie, D., Adams, A., Cooke, S., Whoriskey, F., and Brownscombe, J. 2021. Movescapes and eco-evolutionary movement strategies in marine fish: assessing a connectivity hotspot. Fish and Fisheries, 22, 1321-1344.

  Friess, C., Lowerre-Barbieri, S., Poulakis, G., Hammerschlag, N., Gardiner, J. Kroetz, A., Bassos-Hull, K., Bickford, J., Bohaboy, E., Ellis, R. Menendez, H., Patterson, W., Price, M.E., Rehage, J.S., Shea, C. P., Smukall , M.J., Walters-Burnsed, S., Wilkinson, K.A., Young, J., Collins, A. DeGroot, B., Peterson, C.T., Purtelbaugh, C., Randall, M. Scharer, R.M., Schloesser, R.W., Wiley, T.R., Alvarez, G.A., Danylchuck, A. Fox, A.G., Grubbs, R.D., Hill, A., Locascio, J., O’Donnell, P.M., Skomal, G., Whoriskey, F., and Griffen, L. 2021. Regional scale variability in the movement ecology of marine fishes revealed by an integrative acoustic tracking network. Marine Ecology Progress Series 663, 157-177.

  Walters Burnsed, S., Lowerre-Barbieri, S.K., Bickford, J., and Leone, E. 2020. Recruitment and movement ecology of red drum (Scienops ocellatus) differs by natal estuary. Marine Ecology Progress Series 633: 181-196.

  Zarada, K., Walters Burnsed, S., Bickford, J., Ducharme-Barthe, N., Ahrens R.N.M, and Lowerre-Barbieri, S.K. 2019. Estimating site-specific spawning parameters for a spawning aggregation: an example with spotted seatrout.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 624: 117-129.

  Lowerre-Barbieri, S.K., Kays, R., Thorson, J. and Wikelski, M. 2019. The ocean’s movescape: fisheries management in the bio-logging decade (2018-2028).  ICES Journal of Marine Science 76:477-488.

  Ganias, K., and Lowerre‐Barbieri, S. 2018. Oocyte recruitment and fecundity type in fishes: Refining terms to reflect underlying processes and drivers. Fish and Fisheries, 19: 562-572.

  Lowerre-Barbieri, S., G.DeCelles, P. Pepin, I. A. Catalan, B. Muhling, B. Erisman, S. Cadrin, J. Alós, A. Ospina-Alvarez, M. M. Stachura, M. Tringali, S. Walters Burnsed, and C.B. Paris. 2017. Reproductive resilience: a paradigm shift in understanding spawner-recruit systems in exploited marine fish. Fish and Fisheries.18: 285–312.

  Cooper, W.T., L.R. Barbieri, M.D. Murphy, and S. K. Lowerre-Barbieri. 2013.  Assessing stock reproductive potential in species with indeterminate fecundity: effects of age truncation and size-dependent reproductive timing. Fisheries Researc 138:31-41..

  Walters, S., S. Lowerre-Barbieri, J. Bickford, and D. Mann. 2009. Using a Passive Acoustic Survey to Identify Spotted Seatrout Spawning Sites and Associated Habitat in Tampa Bay, Florida. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 138:88-98.