Former Lab Member Mickey Agha
About Mickey
Mickey completed his PhD in Ecology in the Todd Lab at UC Davis in 2019. He studied how climate change, water use, and droughts shape the ecology of the freshwater Western Pond Turtle, a sensitive status species and the only freshwater turtle native to California. Climate change, water use, and drought are some of the greatest challenges facing our planet in the coming decades. Mickey's work in Suisun Marsh provided insights into how wildlife respond to these complex factors by harnessing a unique opportunity to conduct research in what is arguably North America's largest remaining brackish-water marsh on the entire West Coast.
Following the completion of his degree at UC Davis in 2019, Mickey worked briefly as a postdoctoral researcher in the Todd Lab continuing to manage the Suisun Marsh research project. He left in 2019 to begin his career at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife where he continues to work.
Select publications from his work
Agha M, Yackulic CB, Riley MK, Peterson B, Todd BD. 2020. Brackish tidal marsh management and the ecology of a declining freshwater turtle. Environmental Management 66:644–653.
Agha M, Yanagitsuru YR, Fangue NA, Nowakowski AJ, Kojima LV, Cech JJ, Riley MK, Freeman J, Cocherell DE, Todd BD. 2019. Physiological consequences of rising water salinity for a declining freshwater turtle. Conservation Physiology 7(1):coz054.
Agha M, et al. 2018. Salinity tolerances and use of saline environments by freshwater turtles: implications of sea level rise. Biological Reviews 93:1634–1648.
Agha M, et al. 2018. Macroecological patterns of sexual size dimorphism in turtles of the world. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 31:336–345.
Agha M, et al. 2018. A review of epizoic barnacles reported from freshwater turtles with a new record from California. Herpetological Review. 49(1): 25-28.