Dexter Davis is a 2nd year Master’s Student at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) under Dr. Andrew Thurber studying the role of invertebrate infauna in chemosynthesis at a young methane seep in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Using isotopes, Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME), and gut content analyses, Dexter aims to decipher the role these macroinvertebrates play in the transfer of methane derived carbon from the seafloor. Dexter received a B.S. in Environmental Science with a marine emphasis and a minor in Mathematics from Western Washington University in 2021. Dexter was previously a NOAA Hollings Scholar working at the James J. Howard facility in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and is currently an NSF GRFP Fellow at UCSB.
Before starting graduate school Dexter worked as a research technician under Dr. Shawn Arellano studying larval dispersal and behavior in chemosynthetic habitats in the Gulf of Mexico, Western Atlantic Margin, East Pacific Rise, and the Lau Basin. During this time Dexter participated in 6 deep-sea research cruises learning important skills of animal husbandry, taxonomic sorting, working with deep-sea instruments, and marine invertebrate reproduction. He is excited to continue researching methane seeps around the ocean and finding inspiration for his project in the Antarctic.
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