Serge Planes, PhD

Chief Scientist

Bio

Dr. Serge Planes has been involved in the study of population genetics of marine fish since the beginning of his career that started with his PhD in 1989. Over the past 20 years, he has published about 65 papers in international journals dealing with the population genetics of coral reef fishes and an additional 50 papers dealing with ecology, ecology of marine protected areas and recruitment of marine fishes. ISI Essential Science Indicators (ESI) analyzed research into coral reef ecosystems in the past decade (1995-2005) and ranked his work at #19 in the world out of 5,060 authors (see http://esi-topics.com/coralreef). His early work suggested that coral reef fish populations are much more limited in space than was generally believed prior to the early 90’s. Most of the recent work using both genetic markers and other techniques has confirmed Dr. Planes’ view that marine populations conform to a stepping stone model, with limited gene flow occurring between adjacent populations and most renewal being from self-recruitment. This view has major implications for conservation planning.


Missions