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Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications

Product ID: Math at Work
Supplementary Print
High School

Random Walks and a Dimensionless Number: Mathematics for Marine Ecology

Author: Sarah Williams


Danny Grünbaum is a marine ecologist who works as a professor in the departments of Oceanography and Biology at the University ofWashington in Seattle. In his research, Grünbaum examines how traits of individuals in a marine population translate into population-wide dynamics. I met Grünbaum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, when he visited to talk with mathematicians here about his work.

This article draws on the conversations I had with Grünbaum, his published research, and my own simple implementations of some ideas he has presented. My aim is to give the reader a taste of what it is like to use math at work as a marine ecologist.
©2008 by COMAP, Inc.
Consortium 94
5 pages

Mathematics Topics:

Probability, Percents

Application Areas:

Marine Ecology, Biology

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