Dr. Lisa Kerr is a fisheries ecologist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute who is broadly interested in understanding the structure and dynamics of fish populations, with the goal of enhancing our ability to sustainably manage fisheries and ecosystems as a whole. She is particularly motivated to understand the role complex population structure and connectivity play in the productivity and stability of local and regional populations.

Dr. Kerr employs a diverse skill set to address critical ecological questions that are also directly applicable to fisheries management. Her expertise includes structural analysis of fish hard parts (e.g. otoliths, vertebrae) and the application of the chemical methods (stable isotope, radioisotope, and trace element analysis) to these structures. She also uses mathematical modeling as a tool to understand how biocomplexity within fish stocks (e.g., spatial structure, connectivity, life cycle diversity) impacts their response to natural climatic oscillations, climate change, fishing, and management measures. Other skills used to address questions about stock structure, movement patterns, and basic life history of fish include bioenergetics modeling, fish tagging, statistics, and larval cohort analysis.

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