Johanna Weston is a postdoctoral investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Her research seeks to understand how biodiversity and connectivity shape ecosystem resilience in the deep ocean—an environment that provides critical ecosystem services but remains understudied—and is increasingly threatened by climate change and human activity. Her research investigates the ecological connections between fragmented, island-like habitats, hadal depth subduction trenches, hydrothermal vents, and seeps. Dr. Weston uses amphipods, the highly diverse and abundant crustacean order, to test how the environment shapes communities and drives genetic connectivity, how past conditions shape diversity and distribution, and how human actions impact the deep ocean. To tackle these urgent questions about marine biodiversity at different scales, Dr. Weston integrates principles from ecology, natural history, geosciences, and engineering and uses cutting-edge tools such as deep-ocean vehicles, genomics, and 3D x-ray imaging. From her work, she has participated in six expeditions, published papers about crustaceans in all five oceans, led the naming of five new species (including two new genera), and invented a novel all-ocean depth zooplankton sampler.
