Joyce Yager
Education: Ph.D. ’19, U. Southern California
Cornell Advisor: Eugene Won, Animal Science
EDF Advisors: Julia G. Mason and Mattias Cape
Joyce Yager is a 2024 EDF-Cornell Atkinson Joint Postdoc. She is an Earth and marine scientist who loves science and the planet. She researches changes in marine biogeochemistry through time. She is a co-founder of Be Giants Media, which aims to make science more accessible by highlighting diverse careers in science and the founder of Whakaraupō Fauna, a project investigating marine invertebrates in Ōtautahi Christchurch and sharing information about them with everyone.
Evaluating Food Security and Carbon Sequestration Trade-offs of Potential Mesopelagic Fisheries
The mesopelagic zone (200–1000 meters deep in the ocean) contains a huge amount of the ocean’s biomass. The small fish that live in the mesopelagic zone play a vital role in the biological carbon pump that moves carbon to the seafloor for long-term sequestration. Mesopelagic fish are currently being considered as a new potential source of food for aquaculture, as farmed fish demand is growing and additional food sources are needed to feed carnivorous fish (such as salmon). This project will evaluate the trade-offs between potential disruption to carbon sequestration and human nutrition in commercial exploitation of mesopelagic fish.