Natalie Mastick
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Phone: 602-543-0254
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734 W Alameda Dr Tempe, AZ 85282
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Mail code: 4501Campus: Mesatempe
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As a collections manager, Natalie Mastick cares for the 75,000 vertebrate specimens held in the ASU Natural History Collections (ASUNHC), including reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals, birds, and a vertebrate tissue collection. Dr. Mastick has been researching historical change in ecosystems using museum collections since 2018, which inspired a career in museum collection management to make specimens accessible to other researchers. Her goal is to help students and researchers explore the biodiversity stored in the collections and inspire curiosity that can lead to fruitful research with ASUNHC specimens.
The vertebrate collections can be searched through the CVColl online portal.
Dr. Mastick is also trained as a science communicator and is passionate about teaching early career scientists how to best communicate their science with the public. You can find some of her science communication work below.
Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud, April 23, 2024: What tiny worms found in decades-old cans of salmon reveal about marine ecosystems.
Canadian Public Broadcasting’s Quirks and Quarks, April 12, 2024: Old canned salmon provides a record of parasite infection.
Science Friday podcast, August 26, 2022: Ecological Data from Deep in the Pantry.
Fathom documentary, Apple TV+.
2025 - Postdoc, Yale Peabody Museum
2023 - PhD Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington Seattle
2016 - MSc Wildlife Science, Oregon State University
2013 - BS Marine Biology, BA Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz
My research focuses on using historical data, either through museum specimens or historical datasets, to assess change in previously unseen relationships. Some ecological changes occur so slowly that they go unnoticed, others were understudied to begin with. A majority of my work has been through the lens of parasite ecology in marine systems, investigating change in parasite infections in hosts over time and space using meta-analysis, museum specimens, and even novel data sources like canned fish.
My research background is mostly in marine ecology, with particular interest in marine mammals, food web interactions, and parasite ecology. However, my broader interest in historical ecology has led to advising students on a wide range of research questions using historical datasets, museum collections, field data collection, and publicly available citizen science data sources, like eBird and iNaturalist. Projects have included assessing changes in the flora of a successional island ecosystem, investigating long term change in bird communities in a coastal town, and assessing changes in freshwater parasites over space and time.
Mastick, N.C., Welicky R.L., Preisser, W.C., Leslie, K.L., Fiorenza, E.A., Maslenikov, K.P., Tornabene, L., Kinsella, J.M., and Wood, C.L. 2025. Museum specimens reveal a century of change in Contracaecum spp. in fish intermediate hosts in Puget Sound, Washington. Ecology.
Mastick, N.C., Welicky, R.L., Katla, A., Odegaard, B., Ng, V., and Wood, C.L. 2024. Opening a can of worms: Historical change in parasite burden in four species of salmon revealed by archived canned salmon. Ecology and Evolution.
Mastick, N.C., Fiorenza, E.A., Wood, C.L. 2024. Meta-analysis suggests that, for marine mammals, the risk of parasitism by anisakid nematodes has changed over the past half-century. Ecosphere.
Claar, D., Faiad, S., Mastick, N.C., Welicky, R., Williams, M., Sasser, K., Weber, J., Wood, C.L. 2023. Calculating the energetic burden of Schistocephalus solidus infection on three-spined stickleback hosts using the metabolic theory of ecology. Ecology and Evolution.
Wood, C.L., Welicky, R.L., Preisser, W.C., Leslie, K.L., Mastick, N.C., Greene, C., Maslenikov, K.P., Tornabene, L., Kinsella, J.M., Essington, T.E. 2023 A reconstruction of parasite burden reveals one century of climate-associated parasite decline. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wood, C.L., Leslie, K.L., Claar, D., Mastick, N.C., Preisser, W.C., Vanhove, M.P.M., Welicky, R.L. 2023. How to use natural history collections to resurrect information on historical parasite abundances. Journal of Helminthology.
Preisser, W.C., Welicky R.L., Leslie, K.L., Mastick, N.C., Fiorenza, E.A., Maslenikov, K.P., Tornabene, L., Kinsella, J.M., and Wood, C.L. 2022. Parasite communities in English Sole (Parophrys vetulus) have changed in composition but not richness in the Salish Sea, Washington, USA since 1930. Parasitology.
Mastick, N.C., Wiley, D., Cade, D., Ware, C., Parks, S., Friedlaender, A.S. 2022. The effect of group size on individual behavior of bubble-net feeding humpback whales in the southern Gulf of Maine. Marine Mammal Science.
Williams, R.L., Ashe, E., Yruretagoyena, L., Mastick, N.C., Siple, M., Wood, J., Joy, R., Langrock, R., Mews, S., Finne, E. 2021. Reducing vessel noise increases foraging in endangered killer whales. Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Welicky, R.L., Pressier, W., Fiorenza, E., Leslie, K., Mastick, N.C., Maslenikov, K., Tornabene, L., & Wood, C.L. 2021. Parasites of the past: Ninety years of change in parasite abundance of English sole. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
Williams, R., Viers, S., Viers, V., Ashe, E., Mastick, N.C. 2018. Approaches to reduce ship noise operating in important whale habitats. Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Sound Science Research Collective (SSRC)