Oceans. Ecosystems.
Life on a dynamic planet.

As far as we can tell, not once since complex life evolved has it ever gone entirely extinct. Yet the earth system has changed in myriad ways, and sometimes catastrophically. Life itself has had, and continues to have, an outsized role in shaping the future of our living planet in complex and fascinating ways.

Research in the Hull Lab focuses on reconstructing past oceans, climates, and ecosystems, to understand pressing questions related to the resilience, limits, and effects of life on a changing planet. We draw on the interdisciplinary knowledge and methods of our group and collaborators to ask questions at the interface between different fields of thought.

In the Hull Lab, we are (paleo-)oceanographers, (paleo-)ecologists, (paleo-)climatologists, paleontologists, geochemists, and earth scientists. Together we ask questions like: why are global ecosystems resilient to some perturbations and collapse in the face of others? How do species and ecosystems respond to environmental change of differing magnitude and duration? How do species and ecosystems adapt to live in climate states much warmer than our own?

Please enjoy exploring our website, and reach out with any questions!

Banner: Many of us in the Hull Lab have a special love of foraminifera, tiny protists with a calcareous test, as they play an important role in the carbon cycle today and are incredibly useful for reconstructing the history of the ocean. More importantly, like this Hastigerinella digitata specimen from the midwaters of the Monterey Canyon (Hull et al. 2011),  they are beautiful and manage, with one cell, to do as many things as some multicellular life.