David Garcia Prieto

NOAA-EPP LMRCSC Doctoral Fellow 
Ph.D., Marine Estuary and Environmental Science
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

David Garcia Prieto is a doctoral fellow at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory located in Cambridge, MD. David earned his B.S. in Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Zooplankton are food both for fish and for bacteria. Zooplankton and forage fish migrate to depth during the day to avoid visual predators. David uses a combination of metagenomic and COI amplicon approaches to quantitatively study the effects of low or zero oxygen on zooplankton and forage fish community composition at their vertical migration depths in both estuaries and open ocean Oxygen Deficient Zones. This work will elucidate exactly who migrates to which depth and oxygen concentration. David, who has a strong background in microbiology, then plans to statistically link zooplankton and bacteria at these depths. His dissertation is titled, “Distribution of zooplankton and forage fish across gradients in oxygen in estuaries and open ocean Oxygen Deficient Zones.”

Research Theme: Healthy Habitats

NOAA LMRCSC Fellows attain the NOAA Core Competencies detailed in this rubric.

NERTO Project Title: A temporal analysis of microbes in the Salish Sea using 16S rRNA

NOAA Mentor: Dr. Matthew Galaska, NOAA PMEL, Seattle, Washington & Dr. Sean McAllister, NOAA PMEL, Seattle, Washington

Academic Advisor: Dr. Eric Schott

Publications/Presentations

  1. Fuchsman, C.A.; Garcia Prieto, D.; Hays, M.D.; Cram, J.A. 2023. Associations between picocyanobacterial ecotypes and cyanophage host genes across ocean basins and depth. PeerJ 11:e14924 
  2. Garcia Prieto, D., Hays, M.D., Fuchsman, C.A. (November 2022) Phosphate stress is reflected in changes in gene content of SAR11 and their phage. Lightning Talk: MEES Colloquium, IMET, Baltimore, Maryland.
  3. García Prieto*, D., Hays, M.D., Fuchsman, C.A. (2022, February) Phosphate stress is reflected in changes in gene content of Prochlorococcus, SAR11 and their phage. Speaker: Ocean Sciences 2022.
  4. García Prieto*, D., Hays, M.D., Fuchsman, C.A. (2022, February) Phosphate stress is reflected in changes in gene content of Prochlorococcus, SAR11 and their phage. Speaker: Horn Point Laboratory Student Seminar 2022.
  5. Fuchsman, C.A., Carlson, M.C.G., Garcia Prieto*, D., Hays, M. D., Rocap, G. (2021). Cyanophage host-derived genes reflect contrasting selective pressures with depth in the oxic and anoxic water column of the Eastern Tropical North Pacific. Environmental Microbiology 23(6): 2782–2800. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.15219

NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center
University of Maryland Eastern Shore (Lead Institution)
(410) 651-7870
Award numbers: FY 2021 Award #NA21SEC4810005
Funding Agency: NOAA Educational Partnership Program with Minority-Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI)

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