Daily cyclical changes of light are brought on by the axial rotation of the Earth while seasonal changes in light are caused by Earth’s tilt as it revolves around the sun. Major life history traits, such as development, which are tied to metabolic processes, have a strong link to the...
Climate change presents multiple stressors that are impacting marine life. As carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase in the atmosphere, atmospheric and sea water temperatures increase. In addition, more carbon dioxide is absorbed into the oceans, reducing pH and aragonite saturation state, resulting in ocean acidification (OA). Tightly coupled with...
Understanding of gene flow, connectivity, and diversity is critical to predict the stability of key marine species. The Oregon coast of the U.S.A. shows fine-scale levels of geographic variation in environmental stressors such as temperature, pH, and oxygen levels, prompting questions about the potential for local adaptation. In this thesis,...
Osmotic stress is a common challenge faced by organisms in environments with variable salinity or aridity. Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms underlying adaptation to osmotic stress may have wide applications, including management of populations experiencing climate change, or engineering industrial organisms involved in processes such as fermentation. While Saccharomyces cerevisiae is...
The role of gene expression in adaptation to differing thermal environments has been assayed extensively. Yet, in most natural systems, analyses of gene expression reveal only one level of the complexity of regulatory machineries. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs which are key components of many gene regulatory networks, and...
Echinoderms form an abundant and ecologically important group of marine animals, and they are found in nearly every marine environment, from shallow tropical waters to deep polar benthos and even in the pelagic zone. They exhibit a wide diversity of reproductive strategies that range from broadcasting millions of gametes, with...
Anthropogenic CO₂ emissions are shifting the global climate equilibrium, causing widespread losses in biodiversity. Anthozoan cnidarians are some of the species most vulnerable to environmental change. Environmental stress causes corals and sea anemones to expel their endosymbiotic algae, which constitute a primary source of nutrition for some Anthozoa. Carbonic anhydrase...
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FelipeS. Barreto, Committee Member, representing Department of Integrative Biology
According to a 2017 Pew Research Study, 44% of adults in America say that they do not feel informed enough about science to understand news and new discoveries discussed on the media (Funk et al. 2019). This is concerning, because adults are not just passive consumers of media; among other...
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can be used as markers to infer population genetic structure. For Mycoplasma cynos, a pathogen associated with infectious respiratory disease among canines and other animals, SNPs may help to elucidate ecological and evolutionary relationships among the strains that reside in the upper respiratory tract of canines...
Non-native ecosystem engineers, which modify the structure and function of their ecosystems, are often a particularly concerning and costly group of invasive species. Such organisms may have substantial impacts on ecosystem services, or the benefits that humans derive from their ecosystems. Many factors play a role in the invasion success...