Shayle Matsuda

Shayle Matsuda, Ph.D., serves as an aquatic microbial ecologist in Shedd's Conservation and Research Department. His research focuses on microorganisms' diversity, ecology, and physiology at individual (host-microbe interactions), species, and ecosystem levels. The aim is to enhance the scale and efficiency of conservation and restoration efforts in coral reefs and urban freshwater ecosystems amid climate change.

In coral reefs, Matsuda's research concentrates on coral symbioses, exploring complex partnerships between corals and their symbiotic algae and bacteria. His work involves developing innovative methods to enhance coral thermal tolerance and understanding the microbial basis of thermal resilience. He extensively studies the physiological impacts of ocean warming on coral traits within species and reef ecosystems in the Pacific. Using 'omics, he delves into microbial relationships and their role in the holobiont's stress response. Matsuda specializes in coral-algal symbioses, researching scalable approaches to pairing coral larvae with more thermally resistant algae. His expertise in coral spawning and propagation has contributed to efficiency and survivorship improvements. He actively conducts field research in Hawaiʻi, Florida, and Mo'orea, dividing his time between these locations and Shedd’s Microbiome Lab.

In freshwater ecosystems, Matsuda examines the Chicago River's urbanization impact. His research studies microbial community shifts in response to pollution input, climate change-induced weather pattern shifts, and on-the-ground conservation interventions.

Matsuda earned his Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa and the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, his MSc in biology from San Francisco State University and the California Academy of Sciences, and his BA from the University of California Santa Cruz with a double major in environmental studies and women’s studies. As an avid science communicator and advocate, Matsuda supports diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in STEM and serves on the Brain Trust for the national Inclusive Science Communication Symposium.

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