Amy Baco-Taylor received her Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2002. She has conducted research across the Pacific and into Antarctica, with an emphasis on seamounts, deep-sea corals and deep-sea whale-fall communities. Some of her areas of expertise include using molecular methods to address ecological questions related to dispersal of deep-sea invertebrates, as well as using molecular methods to understand the general evolution of these fauna. She also has a strong background in general ecological tools including surveying, statistics, and analyses. Amy is currently serving on the Scientific Steering Committees of the Census of Marine Life programs on Biogeography of Chemosynthetic Ecosystems (Chess) and Census of Seamounts (CenSeam). She has received grants from Hawaii Sea Grant, Alaska Sea Grant, NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, NOAA NURP Alaska, and NOAA NURP Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. Amy has served as Chief Scientist on six Pisces/ ROV RCV-150 cruises and co-Chief Scientist on an Alvin cruise and a Tangaroa cruise. In total, she has participated in 34 oceanographic cruises off Hawaii, Alaska, California, the Bahamas, New Zealand, and Antarctica and completed 51 dives on Pisces IV, Pisces V, Alvin, Turtle, and Johnson-Sealink II, as well as ROV dives with the Jason II, ATV, Scorpio, Tiburon, and RCV-150.

Examples of publications and reports

Baco, A.R. 2007. Exploration for deep-sea corals on North Pacific seamounts and islands. Oceanography 20(4): 58-67.

Parrish, F.A., and A.R. Baco. 2007. Chapter 4: State of Deep Coral Ecosystems in the United States Western Pacific Region: Hawaii and the United States Pacific Islands. pp. 155-194. In: S.E. Lumsden, T.F. Hourigan, A.W. Bruckner G. and Dorr (eds.) The State of Deep Coral Ecosystems of the United States. NOAA Technical Memorandum CRCP-3. Silver Spring MD. 365 pp.

Rogers, A.D., Baco, A., Griffiths, H., Hart, T. and Hall-Spencer, J.M. 2007. Corals on Seamounts. Chapter 8 in Pitcher, T.J., Morato, T., Hart, P.J.B., Clark, M.R., Haggan, N. and Santos, R.S. (eds) Seamounts: Ecology, Conservation and Management. Fish and Aquatic Resources Series, Blackwell, Oxford, UK. pp. 141-169.

Baco, A.R. and T.M. Shank. 2005. Population genetic structure of the Hawaiian precious coral Corallium lauuense (Octocorallia: Coralliidae) using microsatellites. In Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems (eds. A. Freiwald, JM Roberts), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany. pp. 663-678.

Smith C.R. and A.R. Baco. 2003. Ecology of whale falls at the deep-sea floor. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Review 41: 311-354.