About
When I was seven years old I saw a line drawing of a tropical giant clam in my book, but I’d never seen the ocean. The next year I stood on a cold, hard-packed intertidal sand beach in Alaska looking for the tell tale holes of razor clams to dig. That was my first taste of seawater. I went on to study seaweeds as an undergraduate researcher and have since been “downsizing” to focus on their microscopic cousins, the diatoms. I became familiar with the Gulf of Maine through sampling diatoms. My research interests lie in the mechanisms of adaptation and speciation of these beautiful single-celled phytoplankters with respect to climate forcing. I employ molecular and physiological techniques to deduce the response of diatoms to different environmental variables such as changing temperature. This information is placed in the context of the ocean, in which water is constantly being transported through tides and major currents.
We might not think about it, but microscopic organisms can become invasive – it is just easier to notice the large organisms such as the red alga Heterosiphonia japonica . So these are the organisms that we need to start with in understanding the dynamics of species introductions and invasions. The same environmental conditions and transporting currents that affect the diatoms can also affect larger algae. This is why I am excited to join Jessie and Nic in tracking and monitoring H. japonica as it works its way into new habitat.
Joined
July 2013
