Coral evolution to extreme temperatures
​on the Great Barrier Reef

Coral reefs are home to 25% of all marine biodiversity, yet cover only 0.07% of the Earth's surface. Despite their importance, reefs around the world have experienced unprecedented levels of thermal heat stress in the past decade due to man-made climate change, thus threatening their long-term survival.

The ultimate question I am interested in with my doctorate is:
Will coral reef evolution be able to keep pace with the frequency and intensity of mass bleaching events due to climate change?

To get at this question, I employ evolutionarily-explicit Integral Projection Models (IPM) to model how coral populations are likely to evolve with increased temperature stress while examining long-term population dynamics. 

Recent findings suggest that the adaptive potential of corals may be greater than previously estimated, and thus the thus the importance of melding both ecology and evolution for coral reefs remains paramount to predicting the long-term fates of these populations!

Disturbance cues in tadpoles and minnows

We often think of dogs as having an amazing sense of smell, but fish and other aquatic animals can smell on orders of magnitude better than your average canine!

Tadpoles and fish likely talk to one another  using chemical senses much more than we realize. My M.Sc. thesis research focused on how aquatic animals communicate dangers such as information about nearby predators to one-another, through the production of so-called 'disturbance cues'.
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​If you were in danger, would you call upon your friends or family? Our work examined how tadpoles and minnows produce and respond to disturbance cues differently depending on how familiar and how related they are to other individuals.

Cuttlefish chemical ecology and the effects of early developmental stress

While many cephalopods (i.e. octopus, squids, cuttlefish) produce ink in response to predation threats, the potential functions of ink remain to be discovered. We aim to determine if the common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) respond to conspecific ink similar to how they respond to danger they detect nearby, since ink is generally produced when cuttlefish feel threatened.
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​We also are examining how early-life developmental stress, such as the stress experienced by cuttlefish mothers (maternal stress) and stress detected by embryotic cuttlefish while still in ovo, influence the detection and response to ink and other cues.

The bolder, the better? Or be shy, don't die, in Richardson's ground squirrels

Across many species, bolder individuals tend to do better in terms of reproduction, but worse in terms of survival. However, we have no idea at what age 'boldness' can be accurately detected in wild populations! In this study, we examined the survival and reproductive success of Richardson's ground squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii) observed over many years and compared these to their initial boldness upon their first day out of the burrow. Amazingly, we found early-life boldness to be surprisingly predictive of biological fitness!

We have also published on how daughter ground squirrels respond similar to their mothers in response to a stressful event.

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