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"It is not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change."
-Charles Darwin
In the broadest sense, I am a marine ecologist interested in the ecology and evolution of species interactions. My research lies at the intersection of studies of predator-prey interactions, inducible defenses and planktonic development. I have dedicated my research thus far to understanding the risky business of growing up in the plankton. My research emphasizes one universal risk: predation. As such, my goal is to better understand how interactions between planktonic predators and prey are reflected in the behavior, development and morphology of marine larvae. In short, I ask -- What is the ecological and evolutionary significance of predator-induced responses by larvae that spend the first few weeks of life growing and developing in the sea?
Predator-induced defenses are exhibited by diverse plants and animals in both terrestrial and aquatic environments, and are particularly well-documented in benthic marine organisms. While predator-induced behavioral responses are known in marine planktonic animals, curiously, predator-induced changes in form and induced shifts in life history traits have not been reported. One explanation for the absence of such reports is that the diversity of predators in the marine planktonic environment may be so great as to render some types of inducible defenses ineffective. Of course another explanation is that these types of responses are common in marine zooplankton and have managed to escape our attention.
With my thesis work, I have used laboratory experiments to determine whether the planktonic larvae of some familiar marine invertebrates respond to predators through induced changes in morphology, or by altering the time and size at which they undergo life history shifts. My research demonstrates that stimuli from predators can induce these types of responses in diverse marine larvae and that prior exposure to predators enhances the survival of some larval prey to predators.
To learn more, click on the thumbnails below.
 Predator-Induced Shell Morphology in a Larval Snail
 Predator-Induced Cloning in Larval Sand Dollars
And for fun, here is a verse from one of my favorite poems by renowned embryologist (and sometime poet), Walter Garstang. In this poem, Garstang writes of adaptive changes in the morphology and the behavior of marine larvae that may reduce vulnerability to planktonic predators. How perfect is that?
"Predaceous foes still drifting by
in numbers unabated,
were baffled now by tactics
which their dining plans frustrated"
-Walter Garstang 1929
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
My future research will address the following questions: 1) Are marine larvae that differ in ancestry, form and specification of cell fates nonetheless similarly plastic in responding to predators? 2) Are there developmental windows that constrain larval prey from responding to predators? and 3) Do traits induced early in ontogeny affect the development, growth and survival of the juvenile and adult?
Through laboratory experiments, and soon through modeling, I hope to identify the mechanisms, as well as the evolution and ecological consequences of predator-induced responses during the planktonic development of diverse marine organisms such as snails, sand dollars, and crabs. My future research will also bring more of the revevant complexity of the plankton into the laboratory to examine the role of inducible defenses in varying multipredator interactions during planktonic development.
So stay tuned to find out what is it really like to grow up in the plankton and to see how, in Garstang's words, marine larvae 'frustrate the dining plans of their predators'.....
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