Minorities in the Aquatic Sciences

In general, I am interested in how early life history influences adult population and community dynamics. By understanding crucial aspects of the life history, such as reproductive ecology, larval ecology and physiology, and recruitment dynamics, we can make more informed decisions about management policies for populations and communities of interest.

My dissertation research focuses on the embryology and recruitment dynamics of the cold seep mussel Bathymodiolus childressi at the Brine Pool seep in the Gulf of Mexico. At this site, it has been repeatedly noted that the smallest juvenile mussels reside mainly at the very edge of the brine pool (a brine-filled pockmark lying at a depth of 650 m), leading to the assumption that larvae settle there preferentially. However, there are no empirical studies of recruitment at this site, and recruitment studies other seeps sites are rare or absent. The main objective of my research is to determine which aspects of the early life history stages affect the recruitment dynamics and hence the demographic structure of the Brine Pool mussel population. The work involves manipulative field experiments, collection of stratified plankton samples to determine vertical distributions of larvae, molecular identification of the bivalves larvae in the plankton samples, rearing larvae for descriptive embryology and lab experiments on larval physiology and behavior, and modelling the vertical migration potential of the larvae based on empirical data.

I am due to graduate in May 2007 and hope to forge a career with a government agency conducting research that influeces managment policies.