A5027791338- Marine Biology and Ecology Research
- Marine and coastal plant biology
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Crustacean biology and ecology
- Mollusks and Parasites Studies
- Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology
- Polar Research and Ecology
- Isotope Analysis in Ecology
- Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
- Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Assisted Reproductive Technology and Twin Pregnancy
- Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology and Behavior
- Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Reproductive Biology and Fertility
Northeastern University
2023-2025
University of California, Davis
2014-2024
University of Minnesota
2014
Virginia Commonwealth University
2010-2012
Transitions to terrestriality have been associated with major animal radiations including land snails and slugs in Stylommatophora (>20 000 described species), the most successful lineage of 'pulmonates' (a non-monophyletic assemblage air-breathing gastropods). However, phylogenomic studies failed robustly resolve relationships among traditional pulmonates affiliated marine lineages that comprise clade Panpulmonata (Mollusca, Gastropoda), especially two key taxa: Sacoglossa, a group...
ABSTRACT Local adaptation represents the balance of selection and gene flow. Increasingly, studies find that can occur on spatial scales much smaller than scale dispersal, resulting in balanced polymorphisms within populations. However, microgeographic might be facilitated or hindered by large‐scale environmental heterogeneity, such as across latitude. Marine systems present a special case, many marine species have high dispersal capacity so ‘neighbourhoods’ may encompass heterogeneity over...
Both landscape structure and population size fluctuations influence genetics. While independent effects of these factors on genetic patterns processes are well studied, a key challenge is to understand their interaction, as populations simultaneously exposed habitat fragmentation climatic changes that increase variability in size. In network an alpine butterfly, abundance declined 60-100% 2003 because low over-winter survival. Across the network, mean microsatellite diversity did not change....
Abstract. The intertidal hoplonemertean Prosorhochmus americanus is a common inhabitant of the fouling community rock jetties southeast coast United States. We undertook laboratory investigation feeding rate this nemertean, which suctorial predator amphipod crustaceans that co-occur in abundance community. While submerged water (simulating high tide), worms fed on tube-building amphipods Jassa falcata and Corophium cf. insidiosum at rates 0.19 nemertean−1 d−1 (n=10) 0.26 (n=14),...
Organisms capable of self-fertilization (“selfing”) typically exhibit two evolutionary syndromes: uniting high inbreeding depression with low levels selfing, or selfing. We examined the effect on fecundity and time to first reproduction in an apparently self-compatible, simultaneously hermaphroditic marine nemertean worm Prosorhochmus americanus. Adult juvenile worms were raised isolation pairs. Isolated produced significantly more offspring than paired (in adult experiment), did not...
Secondary metabolites often function as antipredator defenses, but when bioactive at low concentrations, their off-target effects on other organisms may be overlooked. Candidate “keystone molecules” are proposed to affect community structure and ecosystem functions, generally originating defenses of primary producers; the broader animal chemistry remain largely unexplored, however. Here, we characterize five previously unreported polyketides (alderenes A E) biosynthesized by sea slugs...
The interaction between selection and gene flow can determine to what degree populations are able adapt local environmental conditions. This presents a particular conundrum in marine systems, as many species have high dispersal capacity resulting nearly panmictic populations. Increasingly, genomic studies find that even systems with little or no population structure divergence at loci may indicate adaptation the presence of flow. However we just beginning understand which variables might be...
The contribution of phenotypically plastic traits to evolution depends on the degree environmental influence target selection (the phenotype) as well underlying genetic structure trait and response. Likewise, maternal effects can help or hinder through affects response selection. sacoglossan sea slug Alderia willowi exhibits intraspecific variation for developmental mode (= poecilogony) that is environmentally modulated with populations producing more yolk-feeding (lecithotrophic) larvae...
Abstract Developmental mode describes the means by which larvae are provisioned with nutrients they need to proceed through development and typically results in a trade-off between offspring size number. The sacoglossan sea slug Alderia willowi exhibits intraspecific variation for developmental (= poecilogony) that is environmentally modulated populations producing more yolk-feeding (lecithotrophic) during summer, planktonic feeding (planktotrophic) winter. I found significant family level...
Abstract Seasonal polyphenisms are common across the animal and plant kingdom yet we understand explicit interactions between genetics environment for only a few taxa. Are genomic regions their variants associated with trait same or different environments? Is response to selection shared “background” Offspring type in sacoglossan sea slug Alderia willowi is seasonally modulated interaction genotype phenotype that results offspring of wildly developmental trajectories. In genome-wide...
Understanding how species may respond to climate change is of paramount importance. Species that occupy highly heterogenous environments, such as intertidal zone estuarine habitats, provide an ideal test case for examining phenotypic and genomic adaptations different environmental conditions, which influence their response rapidly shifting climatic conditions. The California coast projected experience changes in both temperature salinity, currently vary seasonally latitudinally. Using...