My research is focused on understanding how human activities influence the structure and functioning of marine communities. Within this framework, I concentrate on three key areas: examining anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem change, examining ecosystem services and the bioeconomic rationales for conservation, and developing new methods and materials for ecosystem-based management of marine systems. I use a variety of deterministic and stochastic modeling tools, including trophodynamic and end-to-end modeling approaches, as well as species-level models of oceanography and ecology. Some of my recent work has focused on assessing marine use policies using a management strategy evaluation (MSE) approach " a type of closed-loop policy analysis, in which we simulate each part of Holling's adaptive management cycle (stock assessment, implementation of harvest rules, and policy evaluation). Key to this approach is recognizing feedbacks from the ecosystem that occur in response to management actions (e.g., harvest rules, marine protected areas, catch shares), and evaluating tradeoffs with respect to socioeconomic and ecological policy objectives. There is increasingly a need to be cognizant of potential complications to resource management caused by climate change, but new modeling tools allow us to assess risk and uncertainty. My work contributes to NOAA's integrated ecosystem assessments (IEAs).