About me
My name is Dexter Davis, I'm originally from Seattle, Washington, and am currently an NSF GRFP master's student in the Cold Dark Benthos Lab (Dr. Andrew Thurber). As the son of two punk rock musicians, where my father is an acoustic physicist, and my mother a painter / crafter, I naturally fell into a love of art and science. With the Salish Sea so accessible, I spent my childhood digging at the beach, flipping over rocks, and observing any animal I could find. Coupled with playing too much Pokemon, I grew an obsession with strange creatures found in the ocean that led me to become a marine ecologist.
Research summary
My project delves into the role that infauna (sediment-dwelling animals) play at methane seeps in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. How these infaunal assemblages shift with methane release and whether they incorporate methane-derived nutrition are the two main questions I am exploring. This is important as a lot of methane is stored in Antarctica and we don't fully understand the methane cycle there as the first active seep was recently discovered in 2012.
How did you find yourself in this research path?
After completing my undergraduate degree at Western Washington University, I became a research technician under Dr. Shawn Arellano studying deep-sea larval biology in chemosynthetic habitats (methane seeps / hydrothermal vents). This gave me a fascination for the "little guys" in how larvae acquire symbionts, connect ecosystems through dispersal, and can tell us about the environment they grew up in. When I heard of the opportunity to study the first seep in Antarctica, I needed to see how these systems compared to the deep-sea seeps I'd been working with. No stranger to being under the microscope, I wanted to see how this new energy source was moved through the ecosystem, this time through infauna that eat microbes (who eat the methane), which resulted in a dataset of over 25,000 individuals from sorting sediment cores.
What do you find rewarding about your work?
I feel incredibly privileged to conduct the research that I do. Not only with the opportunity to experience first-hand diving to methane seeps in Antarctica, but also with the scientists I have had the honor to collaborate with. My favorite part of the marine science field is all of the people locally, regionally, and internationally that I've worked with to answer questions in frontier science.
What's your favorite day in the field?
My current favorite field day was my most recent birthday. I got to dive at the Cinder Cones Seeps in Antarctica where I collected sediment cores while the sounds of Wedell seals surrounded me. Then, I got to drive the Pisten Bully back to station where we ran into a group of Adelie penguins and had to stop to say hello. After spending some time under the microscope sorting, I ended the day with a party and cake at the edge of the world with fellow scientists.
What so you love about Santa Barbara?
Santa Barbara is the perfect place to be an outdoorsy marine scientist. On any given day I can hike in the Los Padres National Forest to get views of the mountains and town, or I can head to the beaches and go tidepooling or algae pressing. The ocean is accessible and there's no shortage of activities. One can freedive and catch lobsters, go SCUBA diving in the Channel Islands, or surf at Campus Point. If I want a bigger city experience, LA is not far, and a good amount of music travels through SB. The community here is also very welcoming and uplifting, with many clubs and social events for graduate students with all that extra time we have.
Art x Science
Science is only as good as you can communicate it. Research should be conducted to contribute to the collective understanding of our world but can often be hard to translate to science and non-science backgrounds alike. I think art, whether data visualization, pictures and videos, or literally paintings, has the power to tell stories in a way that numbers and graphs simply can't. For myself, I use art not only to introduce others into new worlds and meet new creatures, but also as a way to summarize my research and make sense of it. Showing people the places and processes, not just explaining them, fosters curiosity and inspires creativity. (Check out Dexter's portfolio here: https://nodexterity.com/portfolio)
