Tanika Ladd is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Western Washington University. As a marine ecologist, she is broadly interested in understanding the structure and function of microbial and faunal communities and how environmental factors shape these communities with consequences for carbon and energy flow through ecosystems. She is particularly excited about exploring these topics at chemosynthetic environments in the deep-sea where many fundamental ecological questions remain unanswered and the significance of these systems to broader ocean biogeochemical processes is not entirely clear. Recently, she has been part of a highly collaborative project that aims to understand how microbial biofilms influence larval settlement at dynamic, high disturbance hydrothermal vents along the East Pacific Rise. She loves spending time at sea and sharing her passion for science and the ocean with young students.
