About the talk: What are the consequences of the loss of consumers for the functioning of marine ecosystems? Whereas most work evaluating consumer impacts focuses on consumption, I will present and discuss other functions that consumers provide in marine systems, including their roles in recycling nutrients and enhancing recruitment of algae. Typical perspectives on interactions between grazers and algae focus on consumption by the herbivores, but herbivores can also benefit primary producers, and these positive effects can outweigh the negative effects. About the speaker: I study the links between community-level and ecosystem-level processes, especially in marine systems, including the role of biodiversity as a driver of nutrient cycling and biomass accumulation. I am also interested in the understanding local-scale versus large-scale processes, spatial subsidies, and the roles of consumers as mediators of productivity and nutrient availability. I studied at the University of Puget Sound (B.S., Biology), and Oregon State University (Ph.D., Zoology), and worked at the University of California, Davis (Postdoc, Bodega Marine Lab) before becoming a faculty member, first at Northeastern University and now at the University of California, Irvine. Twitter: @BrackenLab