Research interests
My research in global change biology sits at the intersection between physiological stress tolerance and environmental exposure. Current research projects examine the physiological consequences of global and local stressors for marine invertebrates in coastal ecosystems and employs complementary techniques from other disciplines (oceanographic sensor technology, environmental chemistry, biogeochemistry, coastal ecology). My research program is centered around the mechanisms underlying acclimatization and local adaptation to environmental change, with a focus on anthropogenic stressors such as ocean acidification, ocean warming, and hypoxia, as well as natural environmental variability. This interdisciplinary program in physiological ecology employs laboratory and field-based experiments, with opportunities for students from a range of backgrounds. Study systems include oysters and other bivalves in the Chesapeake Bay, tropical reef corals, and mussels in the temperature rocky intertidal.
Postdoctoral research
As a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, I worked with Drs. Tessa Hill, Eric Sanford, and Brian Gaylord. My research at BML is focused on using biogeochemistry as a tool to understand the environmental history of an individual or population. Applying this technique in a novel way will allow us to define links between the environmental exposure of an animal, its physiological performance, and its tolerance of future environmental change. I also enjoyed productive interdisciplinary collaborations in responses of foraminifera to ocean acidification with Kate Davis, mechanisms of phenology with Louis Yang, and interactive effects of ocean acidification and copper nanoparticles on sea urchin larvae with Cristina Torres Duarte and Gary Cherr.
Graduate research
My PhD research at University of California, Santa Barbara focused on the physiological plasticity of coral larvae in response to two potentially interacting anthropogenic stressors - ocean acidification and warming. Under the advisement of Dr. Gretchen Hofmann, I explored how coral larvae might respond to future ocean conditions at multiple levels of biological organization - the organism, the biochemical, and the molecular. My study species was Pocillopora damicornis, a reef-building coral found throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific regions. I was fortunate to work with populations of this species in Moorea, French Polynesia, through the Moorea Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research program, and in Taiwan, at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium.
Target facets of physiology:
I am also interested in the biophysical coupling of physiological plasticity and variability in in situ pH - how the environmental history of a population shapes the ability of individuals to tolerate future environmental change. During my PhD, I compared populations of P. damicornis between sites characterized by different amounts of variability of pH and temperature. I paired data from SeaFET pH sensors and temperature/salinity instruments with physiological data from laboratory experiments to gauge responses to future ocean conditions.
Target facets of physiology:
- Lipid content and composition. These lecithotrophic larvae rely on their lipid energy reserves to help fuel their dispersal and to maintain buoyancy. Significant depletion of lipid stocks may limit the length of their pelagic duration.
- Metabolic rate. Launching a stress response requires additional energy. Responses in metabolic rate to exposures of low pH and elevated temperature reveal a general overview of the effect of stress on larval physiology. Faster energy consumption may fuel a targeted stress response to combat environmental stress. Metabolic depression is also a likely response but could limit growth and reproduction of individuals if the stress persists.
- Oxidative stress and acid/base homeostasis. Besides its well-known effects on calcification, ocean acidification perturbs intracellular pH and causes increases in the production of reactive oxygen species. The cellular stress response to ocean acidificaiton likely includes enzymes that act to neutralize these sources of molecular damage.
- Gene expression. Modulation of gene expression is a swift and resilient mechanism for responding to environmental change. I used RNA sequencing to evaluate changes in expression of acidity- and temperature-sensitive coral genes to assess the coral's controlled response to multiple stressors.
I am also interested in the biophysical coupling of physiological plasticity and variability in in situ pH - how the environmental history of a population shapes the ability of individuals to tolerate future environmental change. During my PhD, I compared populations of P. damicornis between sites characterized by different amounts of variability of pH and temperature. I paired data from SeaFET pH sensors and temperature/salinity instruments with physiological data from laboratory experiments to gauge responses to future ocean conditions.
Undergraduate research
As an undergraduate at Cornell University, I studied the fungal pathogen Aspergillus sydowii, which causes aspergillosis in gorgonian corals. For my honors thesis under the advisement of Dr. Drew Harvell, I used stable isotope experiments to examine the metabolic capabilities of the fungus. I determined that A. sydowii can catabolize sea fan-derived nitrogen and that it preferentially assimilates sea fan-derived nitrogen over nitrate, particularly for fungal isolates form diseased colonies. In addition, while the fungus uses the coral's proteinaceous skeleton to spread throughout the colony, it more readily assimilates nitrogen from the coral tissue than the gorgonin skeleton.