PhD Candidate, Biology, UNC-CH
Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, Esteban grew up spending time in the sea freediving, spearfishing and windsurfing which instilled a lifelong respect and appreciation for the ocean. He completed his undergraduate and master’s degree at the Universidad Simón Bolívar.
Esteban is a marine ecologist interested in exploring how environmental characteristics such as temperature and structural complexity affect reef communities. His dissertation will utilize an experimental approach to study how temperature changes affect ecological processes like herbivory or predation on Galapagos reefs. He will conduct experiments in Galapagos on fish and sea urchins to explore how temperature and human pressure can affect feeding activity of these organisms. Esteban’s research will focus on the consequence of climate change at ecosystem level and his results should create a more complete picture of the impacts of ocean warming.
Esteban is partially funded through The Henry Van Peters Wilson Memorial Fund for Marine Biology.