Scientist Profile: Laura Vary

I first became a scientist when I was four years old.

I was crouching beneath a large pine tree in the woods of my backyard with my father standing beside me. We were both inspecting an oblong, dark brown excrement. Though that word typically conjures an unsavory image, this particular excrement was scentless and mysterious. My dad explained that it was an owl pellet, likely from one of the screech owls inhabiting our property. He palmed the pellet and we walked back to my house along the wooded path, my mind expanding with questions of what that little pellet contained.

Back in our garage, my father showed me how to carefully break apart the pellet using tweezers. He pulled out small rodent bones, teeth, and other unidentifiable fragments tangled in the furry hair that held the pellet together. We dissected many of these in the months that followed, thus transforming my backyard into my first field site. Those woods developed my interest in ecology as I watched the dynamics of robins, cardinals, foxes, and chipmunks. They introduced me to basic biology as I found treasures including a complete, petrified possum skeleton and an intact still-born coyote pup – gruesome, sure, but also deeply fascinating. My father, as a professional biochemist, taught me all he knew about our woods during frequent walks in the evenings; his teachings stoked my enthusiasm and I quickly learned that the world of science could be mine.

Though I lived inland, near lakes and rivers teeming with small spotted sunfish and bass, I was drawn to the craggy granite shoreline of Maine’s coast. I would rock-hop away from my mother as she read to seek out tide pools, hidden from view and bursting with barnacles and mussels and small periwinkles. By sixth grade I was determined to become a marine biologist. I was open to other career paths in science, but I never happened upon anything that created such inquisitive fervor as the ocean. In my junior year of high school, I took a course in marine biology which reaffirmed my sixth-grade ambition. During this course I was fortunate enough to travel to Bermuda for my first field expedition. There I spent a week at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) with fellow students, where I received my first introduction to marine plankton. We gathered samples at night, with our faces lit up by the bioluminescence stirred by the boat’s wake, and discovered entire microscopic galaxies of invertebrate larvae, krill, and other single-celled organisms. As fate would have it, I would find myself mesmerized by these microscopic communities again.

My mission to become a marine biologist led me, surprisingly, to the drought-stricken Central Valley of California, to University of California at Davis (UC Davis). I was immediately drawn to the school after learning about UC Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML). Strategically located at the site of one of the most productive areas of the California coast, BML houses all varieties of innovative University of California undergraduate and graduate marine ecosystem research. With urging from my father to “follow the research”, I embarked on my undergraduate journey with the singular goal of studying at BML.

I joined my first undergraduate research project in the spring of my freshman year in the Ecology and Evolution Department with the Wainwright Lab studying the morphological evolution of teleost fishes.

The infraclass Teleostei comprises the largest group of ray-finned fishes (think of tropical reef fishes, cichlids, bass, rockfish, trout, etc.) and we sought to understand just how this group became so physically diverse. I traveled to the Smithsonian Museum’s Collections Facility in Maryland with a small group of my peers, and together we measured preserved specimens of Teleostei fishes. These measurements, and others taken by more undergraduates in following years, produced one of the largest public databases of linear measurements of fishes available today. This work resulted in the presentation of my first research project utilizing a subset of these data at the 28th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference.

Then, after a year-long digression in terrestrial plant ecology, my first significant experimental failure, and the completion of physically exhaustive biology courses, I finally arrived at Bodega Marine Lab in August of 2018. I studied coastal and biological oceanography and assisted with research in the Morgan Lab of fisheries ecology. It was with this lab that I became reacquainted with marine plankton. I counted fish larvae and eggs and became endlessly fascinated with the expansive world that fit within the view of my microscope. I returned to this lab after graduation in 2019 to become a paid research technician. In this dream role I learned identification of invertebrate larvae, how to distinguish one species of krill from another, and organized a science crew and team of volunteers to evaluate marine protected areas off the Sonoma Coast. The Morgan Lab became my second home; I understood my priorities as a researcher and progressive member of a new wave of scientists and determined what my future after graduation would look like.

My journey as a researcher brings me to today and my current role: an incoming graduate student to Oregon State University’s marine resource management master’s program. In the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences I will work with Dr. Lorenzo Ciannelli in his Fisheries Oceanography lab. Through the utilization of fish plankton data, I plan to research the ability of fishes like halibut, cod, and pollock to alter the timing (phenology) and location (geography) at which they spawn. Many species of fishes are well-known for returning to the exact same locations at highly specific times to reproduce – yet, in the face of climate change and rapidly shifting environmental conditions, an inability to modify phenology or spawning geography could result in extinction for some. I strive to understand the adaptive capacity in these species and how that relates to the future of the species, reliant commercial fisheries, and the larger marine ecosystem. I am driven by the need to understand what confers resilience in fish populations, and how we – as stewards – can learn from traditional native practices, historical environmental dynamics, and robust predictive models to create sustainable ecosystems and restore balance in the ocean.

I hope that more people find room for research and science in their daily lives and I am motivated to increase the accessibility of academia for all. A common misconception for many is that scientists are highly trained individuals that dedicate their lives to research - we are not. We are inquisitive people that look at our world, make observations, and ask questions, just as I did when I was young. I want more people to understand that their voices and actions are deeply influential in the scientific world, and I will dedicate my future in research to ensuring the inclusivity of academia, management, and conservation.

Connect more with Laura @ResultsCan_Vary on Twitter!