Luke Miller

I am primarily interested in how marine organisms deal with the physical environment including the weather and waves, as well as how organisms deal with each other via competition and predation. Much of my research has focused on northeastern Pacific rocky intertidal habitats from California to Alaska, but I have also worked on New England rocky shore communities, on Antarctic scallops, and in kelp forests and estuary habitats. I am interested in how individual organisms and communities might cope with the effects of climate change, but also how they cope with current day-to-day variation in their environment. I employ a variety of methods and approaches that draw from the fields of biomechanics and physiology, and my group works both in the field and lab.

The Miller Lab accepts students via the SDSU Biology Department’s Ecology Program Area Masters degree program and Joint Doctoral Program in Ecology. Potential applicants should contact Dr. Miller in summer or fall ahead of the respective application deadlines to discuss potential opportunities in the lab.

(Updated 2025 – full list at https://lukemiller.org/cvpublications)

Rangel, R.E., M.E.S. Bracken, K.J. Kroeker, L.P. Miller, & C.J.B. Sorte (2025) Factorial field manipulation reveals CO₂ and temperature effects on a critical habitat-forming shellfish. Journal of Experimental Biology 228 (17): jeb250787 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.250787

McIntire, L.C. & L.P. Miller (2025) The Role of Mobility in Intertidal Invertebrates’ Responses to Thermal Stress. Integrative and Comparative Biology, icaf078 https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf078

Skelton, Z.R., L.R. McCormick , G.T. Kwan, J. Lonthair, C. Neira, S.M. Clements, T.R. Martz, P.J. Bresnahan, U. Send, S.N. Giddings, J.C. Sevadjian, S. Jaeger, A. Feit, B.W. Frable, P.J. Zerofski, M. Torres, J.A. Crooks, J. McCullough, M.L. Carter, E. Ternon, L.P. Miller, G.M. Kalbach, D.C. Wheeler, P.E. Parnell, K.M. Swiney, G. Seibert, J.J. Minich, J.R. Hyde, P.A. Hastings, J.E. Smith, L.M. Komoroske, M. Tresguerres, L.A. Levin, N.C. Wegner (2024) Organismal responses to deteriorating water quality during the historic 2020 red tide off Southern California. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene v12 (1), 1-27 https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2023.00067

Sanders, R.D., A.K. Obaza, B.C. Grime, M. Lindhart, L.P. Miller, K.E. Elsmore, O.C. Carmack, T.K. Ford, J.J. Leichter (2024). Wave, light, and dissolved oxygen exposures drive novel coastal eelgrass (Zostera pacifica) transplant performance. Frontiers in Marine Science v11, 1-19 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1355449

Breaker, L.C. and L.P. Miller (2023). One Hundred Years of Daily Sea-Surface Temperature from the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California: A Review of the History, Acquisition, and Significance of the Record. In Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review v61, 3-34. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003363873-2

Elsmore, K., K.J. Nickols, L.P. Miller, T. Ford, M.W. Denny and B. Gaylord (2023). Wave damping by giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera. Annals of Botany https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcad094

Sorte, C. J. B., K. J. Kroeker, L. P. Miller, M. E. S. Bracken. (2023) Biological modification of coastal pH depends on community composition and time. Ecology v104: e4113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4113

Miller, L. P. (2022). Monitoring bivalve behavior and physiology in the laboratory and field using open-source tools. Integrative and Comparative Biology 62 (4): 1096-1110 https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac046

Bracken, M.E.S., L.P. Miller, S.E. Mastroni, S.M. Lira and C.J.B. Sorte (2022)  Accounting for variation in temperature and oxygen availability when quantifying marine ecosystem metabolism. Scientific Reports 12, 825. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04685-8

Lyman, T., K. E. Elsmore, B. Gaylord, J. E. Byrnes, and L. P. Miller. (2020) Open Wave Height Logger: an open source pressure sensor data logger for wave measurement. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 18: 335-355 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10370