USC College Department of Biology

Faculty

Biological Sciences has more than 60 full-time faculty members, as well as more than 20 faculty with joint appointments and 15 visiting or adjunct professors. Among its many distinctions and honors, the Ph.D. program faculty includes two members of the National Academy of Sciences, four members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 18 holders of endowed chairs and professorships.

David Hutchins

Professor of Biological Sciences

Contact Information
Office: AHF 107
Phone: (213) 740-5616
E-mail: dahutch@usc.edu

Education

B.S. Biology, Portland State University, 1987
M.S. Biology, Portland State University, 1989
Ph.D. Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, 1994

Postdoctoral Training

Postdoctoral researcher, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 01/04/1994-01/06/1995

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

Professor of Oceanography, University of Delaware, 01/07/2005-03/31/2007
Associate Professor of Oceanography, University of Delaware, 07/01/2001-06/03/2005
Assistant Professor of Oceanography, University of Delaware, 01/08/1996-06/30/2001

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Dave Hutchins’ research interests concern marine phytoplankton biology and nutrient and carbon cycling. In general, these projects often involve first building hypotheses based on experimental work with algal cultures in the laboratory. These hypotheses are then tested in experiments with natural communities of plankton onboard research vessels at sea. His recent and current projects include extensive investigations into the role of iron and other trace metals as biologically limiting nutrients in the ocean, and factors that affect the establishment of destructive blooms of harmful and toxic algae. New projects in regions like the Bering Sea, the North Atlantic, and the seas around Antarctica are examining the impacts of anthropogenic global change (e.g. rising CO2, acidity and temperature) on the structure and diversity of phytoplankton communities, and on the ocean nutrient cycling pathways and food webs that they support. Another ongoing project is examining the implications of increasing atmospheric CO2 for nitrogen-fixing organisms in the tropical and subtropical oceans. This new work is at the forefront of increasingly urgent efforts among the international oceanography community to understand the consequences of human fossil fuel emissions for ocean biology and chemistry, and in turn predict the potential feedbacks from these changing ocean processes to atmospheric CO2 and global climate.

Research Specialties

Phytoplankton biology, Biogeochemical oceanography, Ocean carbon and nutrient cycles, Ocean climate change feedbacks, Trace metal/biota interactions, Harmful algal bloom studies

Funded Research

Contracts and Grants Awarded

Collaborative Research: FeCycle II -- Natural variability in plankton iron quotas during an unamende (National Science Foundation Chemical Oceanography), David A. Hutchins, Feixue Fu, $254,816, 2007-2010
Collaborative Research: CO2 Control Of Oceanic Nitrogen Fixation (National Science Foundation), Hutchins, David, Quick, Michael William, $594,269, 05/01/2007-04/30/2010
The Future of Harmful Algal Blooms (University of Delaware (EPA subcontract)), Hutchins, David, $153,027, 04/01/2007-09/30/2009
Collaborative Research: Interactive Effects Of Iron Light And CO2 on Phytoplankton Community Dynamics in the Ross Sea (National Science Foundation), Hutchins, David, $158,929, 04/01/2007-01/31/2009
SGER: Science-of-Opportunity Aboard Icebreaker Oden (National Science Foundation), Hutchins, David, Fu, Feixue, $78,476, 09/01/2007-08/31/2008
Collaborative Research: US/EC Collaboration On Potential Climate Change Impacts on Algal Community Structure and Biogeochemistry (National Science Foundation), Hutchins, David, $97,908, 04/01/2007-10/31/2007

Other Research

Hosted visiting scientist in my lab, Dr. Jun Sun, associate professor, Qingdao Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, March- August, 2008, 2008
Research cruises: Amundsen Sea and Ross Sea cruise, Punta Arenas, Chile to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. R. Sherrell, chief scientist. November 2007- January 2008. Swedish icebreaker Oden. D. Hutchins participating. Gulf of Mexico cruise, St Petersburg, FL to St Petersburg, FL. C. Heil, chief scientist. October 2007. D. Hutchins and research group participating. , 2007-2008

Service to the Profession

Professional Memberships

The Oceanography Society, 2007-
American Geophysical Union, 2006-
American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, 2006-
Phycological Society of America, 2006-