Frances Wilkerson

Wilkerson Lab Website

Biography

As a California Academy Fellow, with 100 peer reviewed publications, I am a Biological Oceanographer studying nutrients. productivity and algae (including Harmful Algal Blooms such as the recent SF Bay red tide) in estuarine and coastal upwelling ecosystems. More specifically my research lab focusses on nitrogen cycling in aquatic systems, and how fluxes of nitrate and ammonium affect phytoplankton, primary production and the biological pump. This covers impacts related to anthropogenic nutrients from wastewater treatment practices, harmful algae and restoration of wetland systems in addition to carbon fluxes and global climate change. Our lab measures nutrient concentrations in real-time at Tiburon as well as ship-based research measuring nutrients and their uptake by algae and primary productivity using isotopic tracers.  Study sites include San Francisco Bay, coastal California and the equatorial Pacific. I am also interested in the role algae play in marine symbioses in jellyfish, giant clams and anemones and coral bleaching. 

Selected Papers

• Hoshovsky*, R*., F.P. Wilkerson, A.E. Parker, R.C. Dugdale. 2025. Evaluating modeling approaches for phytoplankton productivity in estuaries. Water 2025. Accepted Feb 2025
• Dugdale, R.C, A.E. Parker, F.P. Wilkerson. 2024. Patterns in anthropogenic nitrogen and water quality leading to phytoplankton blooms in urban estuaries. Journal of Marine Science & Engineering. 2024 12 (11). doi.org/10.3390/jmse12112029
• Wilkerson, F.P, S. Blaser, S. Randall, R. Hoshovsky, B. Gustafson, R. Dugdale, E. Holmes, J. Frantzich, B. Davis, M. Miner, E. Huynh, L. Twardochleb. 2024. Phytoplankton Productivity, Nutrient Uptake and Nutrient Concentrations in the North Delta (2017 - 2023) DWR Publication, Contract # 4600013243.
• Salas-Collado*, L., Gómez, M., Dugdale, R.C., Martínez, I., Blasco, D., Barber, R.T., Wilkerson, F.P. and Packard, T.T., 2023. Modelling new production from nitrate reductase activity and light in the Peru current upwelling. Seminario Ibérico de Química Marina (SIQUIMAR),183.
• Glibert, P. M., F. P. Wilkerson, R. C. Dugdale, and A. E. Parker. 2022. Ecosystem recovery in progress? Initial nutrient and phytoplankton response to nitrogen reduction from sewage treatment upgrade in the San Francisco Bay Delta." Nitrogen 3, no. 4 (2022): 569-591.
• Wang, Z., F Chai, H. Xue, X. H. Wang, Y.J. Zhang, R. Dugdale, F. P. Wilkerson. 2021. Light regulation of phytoplankton growth in San Francisco Bay studied using a 3D sediment transport model. Frontiers in Marine Science 8: 758, doi=10.3389/fmars.2021.633707
• Wilson*, J.R. F.P. Wilkerson, S. Blaser, K.J. Nielsen. 2020 Phytoplankton community structure in a seasonal low-inflow estuary adjacent to coastal upwelling (Drakes Estero, CA, USA). Estuaries and Coasts, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00792-3, 1-19.
• Kimmerer, W., F.P. Wilkerson, E. Gross, S. Khana, R. Dugdale, A. Parker, J. Thompson. 2019. Effects of drought and the emergency drought barrier on the ecosystem of the California Delta. Estuary and Watershed Science.17: Issue 3:Article 2. September 2019. 1-28. 
• Stumpner, E., B. Bergamaschi, T. E.C. Kraus, A. E. Parker, F.P. Wilkerson, B. Downing, R. C. Dugdale, M.C. Murrell, K. D. Carpenter, J. Orlando, C. Kendall. 2019. Spatial variability of phytoplankton in a shallow t dal freshwater system reveals complex controls on abundance and community structure.  Science of the Total Environment. :https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134392
• González-Galisteo, S., T.T. Packard, M. Gómez, A. Herrera, R.C. Dugdale, F.P. Wilkerson, R.T. Barber, D. Blasco, J.P. Christensen, J.P. and L.A. Codispoti. 2019. Calculating new production from nitrate reductase activity and light in the Peru Current Upwelling. Progress in Oceanography 73: 78-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2019.02.009      
• Glibert P.M., C.A. Heil, F.P. Wilkerson, R.C. Dugdale. 2018 Nutrients and harmful algal blooms: dynamic kinetics and flexible nutrition. In: Glibert P., Berdalet E., Burford M., Pitcher G., Zhou M. (eds) Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms. Ecological Studies (Analysis and Synthesis), vol 232. Springer, Cham, pp.93-112. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70069-4_6    
• Liu, Q., F. Chai, R.C. Dugdale, Y.Chao, H. Xue, S. Rao, F. Wilkerson, J. Farrara, H. Zhang, Z. Wang, and Y. Zhang. 2018. San Francisco Bay nutrients and plankton dynamics as simulated by a coupled hydrodynamic-ecosystem model. Continental Shelf Research 161: 29-48.
• Kraus et al. ((incl.Wilkerson). 2017 A river-scale Lagrangian experiment examining controls on phytoplankton dynamics in the presence and absence of treated wastewater effluent high in ammonium. Limnology and Oceanography 62: 1234-1253.
• Wilkerson, F.P. and R. C. Dugdale. 2016. The ammonium paradox of a high nutrient low chlorophyll estuary. In: Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry: A Dual Perspective” (P.M. Glibert and T.M. Kana (ed), Springer.
• Glibert, P.M., F.P. Wilkerson, R.C. Dugdale, J. A. Raven, C. Dupont, P.R. Leavitt, A.E. Parker, J.M. Burkholder, T.M. Kana. 2016. Pluses and minuses of ammonium and nitrate uptake and assimilation by phytoplankton and implications for productivity and community composition, with emphasis on nitrogen-enriched conditions. Limnology and Oceanography 61: 165-197.
• Wilkerson, F.P., R.C. Dugdale, A.E. Parker, S.B. Blaser, A. Pimenta. 2015. Nutrient uptake and primary productivity in an urban estuary: using rate measurements to evaluate phytoplankton response to different hydrological and nutrient conditions. Aquatic Ecology 49(2): 211-233.