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Physical & Biological Sciences Division
Institute of Marine Sciences
Research Associate
Staff
Researcher
Remote work location
See below
SWFSC FED Lab
Long Marine Lab
Dr. Lonhart has worked as a research ecologist for NOAA's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary since 2002 and has also been Research Associate with IMS since 2002. Steve is also a Unit Diving Supervisor for NOAA (since 2014) and serves on the NOAA Diving Control and Safety Board (since 2023) as the National Ocean Service's Line Office Diving Officer (LODO). Steve is responsible for maintaining research and monitoring programs and implementing scientific goals to integrate existing monitoring programs within the sanctuary; supporting research and monitoring programs that address important resource management issues; and disseminating information to resource managers, researchers, educators, and the general public. Steve collaborates and partners with multiple research and monitoring programs, spanning estuarine, rocky intertidal, and subtidal nearshore habitats.
Steve has biology degrees from UCLA (BS 1990), California State University Long Beach (MS 1996), and UC Santa Cruz (PhD 2001). Though he has several interests in marine ecology, his scientific research has focused on invasion biology, kelp forest ecology, range shift ecology, biogeography, and marine invertebrate natural history.
Kelp forest ecology, invasion biology, range shift ecology, biogeography, and marine invertebrate life history.
Research and monitoring in marine protected areas of central California, ecological consequences of biological invasions in central California harbors and adjacent open coast, and geogrpahic range expansions/contractions associated with climate change.
2021 Outstanding Employee of the Year, National Ocean Service, NOAA
2021 President, Western Society of Naturalists
2014 Naturalist of the Year, Western Society of Naturalists
2012 Partners in Conservation Award, US Department of the Interior
2009 Innovation of the Year Award, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
2009 Bronze Medal, U.S. Department of Commerce: COSCO BUSAN oil spill response
Eger, A.M. ... S.I. Lonhart, ... and A. Verges. 2023. The Kelp Forest Challenge: A collaborative global movement to protect and restore 4 million hectares of kelp forests. Journal of Applied Phycology. doi.org/10.1007/s10811-023-03103-y
Turner, T.L. and S.I. Lonhart. 2023. The sponges of the Carmel Pinnacles Marine Protected Area. Zootaxa 5318(2): 151-194. doi.org/10.11646/ZOOTAXA.5318.2.1
Tolimieri, N., A.O. Shelton, J.F. Samhouri, C.J. Harvey, B.E. Feist, G.D. Williams, K.S. Andrews, K.E. Frick, S.I. Lonhart, G. Sullaway, O. Liu, H.D. Berry, and J. Waddell. 2023. Changes in kelp forest communities off Washington, USA, during and after the 2014–2016 marine heatwave and sea star wasting syndrome. Marine Ecology Progress Series. doi.org/10.3354/meps14220.
Malone, D.P., K. Davis, S.I. Lonhart, A. Parsons-Field, J.E. Caselle, and M.H. Carr. 2022. Large-scale, multidecade monitoring data from kelp forest ecosystems in California and Oregon (USA). Ecology e3630. doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3630
Hamilton, S.L., V.R. Saccomanno, W.N. Heady, A.L. Gehman, S.I. Lonhart, R. Beas-Luna, F.T. Francis, L. Lee, L. Rogers-Bennett, A.K. Salomon, and S.A. Gravem. 2021. Disease-driven mass mortality event leads to widespread extirpation and variable recovery potential of a marine predator across the eastern Pacific. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 288: 20211195. doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.1195
Yates, D.C., S.I. Lonhart, and S.L. Hamilton. 2020. Effects of marine reserves on predator-prey interactions in central California kelp forests. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 655:139-155.
Lonhart, S.I., R. Jeppesen, R. Beas-Luna, J.A. Crooks, and J. Lorda. 2019. Shifts in the distribution and abundance of coastal marine species along the eastern Pacific Ocean during marine heatwaves from 2013 to 2018. Marine Biodiversity Records. doi.org/10.1186/s41200-019-0171-8
Rhoades, O.K., S.I. Lonhart, and J.J. Stachowicz. 2019. Human-induced reductions in fish predator boldness decrease their predation rates in kelp forests. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 286(1900):20182745. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2745
Sadowski, J.S., J.A. Gonzalez, S.I. Lonhart, R. Jeppesen, T.M. Grimes, and E.D. Grosholz. 2018. Temperature-induced range expansion of a subtropical crab along the California coast. Marine Ecology. e12528. doi-org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1111/maec.12528
Rhoades, O.K., S.I. Lonhart, and J.J. Stachowicz. 2018. Fished species uniformly reduced escape behaviors in response to protection. Biological Conservation, 226:238-246.
Zabin, C.J., M. Marraffini, S.I. Lonhart, L. McCann, L. Ceballos, C. King, J. Watanabe, J.S. Pearse, and G.M. Ruiz. 2018. Non native species colonization of highly diverse, wave swept outer coast habitats in Central California. Marine Biology, 165:31.
Figurski, J.D., J. Freiwald, S.I. Lonhart, and C.D. Storlazzi. 2016. Seasonal sediment dynamics shape temperate bedrock reef communities. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 552:19-29.
Storlazzi, C.D., T.A. Fregoso, J.D. Figurski, J. Freiwald, S.I. Lonhart, and D.P. Finlayson. 2013. Burial and exhumation of temperate bedrock reefs as elucidated by repetitive high-resolution sea floor sonar surveys: spatial patterns and impacts to species’ richness and diversity. Continental Shelf Research, 55:40-51.
Lonhart, S.I. 2009. Natural and climate change mediated invasions. In: G. Rilov, J.A. Crooks (eds). Biological Invasions of Marine Ecosystems: Patterns, Effects, and Management. Ecological Studies 204, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. p 57-69.
Ritter, A.F., K. Wasson, S.I. Lonhart, R.K. Preisler, A. Woolfolk, K.A. Griffith, S. Connors, and K.W. Heiman. 2008. Ecological signatures of anthropogenically altered tidal exchange in estuarine ecosystems. Estuaries and Coasts, 31:554-571
Zacherl, D., S.D. Gaines, and S.I. Lonhart. 2003. The limits to biogeographical distributions: insights from the northward range extensions of the marine snail, Kelletia kelletii (Forbes, 1852). Journal of Biogeography, 30: 913-924
Lonhart, S.I. and Tupen, J.W. 2001. Recent range extensions of 12 marine invertebrates: the role of El Niño and other mechanisms in southern and central California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 100(3): 238-248
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