Dr. Dustin Marshall (group leader)
I started out as a marine ecologist working on marine invertebrates with a particular interest in the larval stage. These days, I'm still interested in these critters but my interests have expanded to a range of other topics. My three broad interests are:
The role of phenotypic links among life-history stages in population dynamics
Sexual selection in the sea
Quantitative genetics in the sea
Ultimately, I'm excited by the questions that we ask rather than specific organisms but I must admit that I still love working with marine invertebrates. Luckily, they are a great study system to ask the questions I'm interested in.
My role in the marine evolutionary ecology group includes managing our laboratories and aquaria systems, as well as undertaking intensive lab and field based experiments in close association with Dr. Marshall. I work closely with all members of our research group on a variety of interesting systems. Recently I have been working with arborescent and encrusting marine bryozoans - investigating the effects of offspring size on performance under varying degrees of inter- and intra-specific competition. At the moment I am investigating how different degrees of competition may affect growth form in the encrusting marine bryozoan, Watersipora arcuata
Simon Hart - Ph. D. Candidate
Chance, history and determinism in the assembly and dynamics of sessile marine invertebrate communities
There are two competing hypotheses that describe how ecological communities assemble: 1) assembly is tightly constrained and highly deterministic leading to predictable community states based on functional differences among species; and 2) assembly is stochastic and is determined by the chance arrival of individuals and species leading to many possible (and unpredictable) community states. In reality, most communities are likely to be influenced by both stochastic and deterministic assembly dynamics. For example, the chance arrival of certain species in a community may influence what species are able to arrive subsequently, such that future community states become partially constrained. The two hypotheses, then, fall at the ends of a continuum that describes the relative roles of chance and constraint in community assembly.
I will use diverse, marine, sessile invertebrate communities as a model system to assess the relative roles of chance and constraint in the assembly and dynamics of ecological communities.
Richard Allen - Ph.D. Candidate
I have always been interested in the question, how can organisms make themselves perform better? Over time my interests have developed more specifically to how can organisms in one generation make the offspring in the next generation perform better? One of the most profound ways organisms in one gernation can increase the performance of offspring is to release offspring in more favourable environments. In terrestrial systems, the study of offspring release site is state-of- the-art, and has been shown to be an important factor influencing many aspects of ecology and evolution in both applied and pure science. In contrast, marine systems have received considerably less attention. My research interests try to answer the question, do maternal marine invertebrates select specific sites for offspring release to increases offspring performance? I am using the sea slug Elysia pusilla as a model organism.
Angela Crean - Ph. D. Candidate
Influence of maternal stress on offspring quality and performance – links between life history stages.
It may seem obvious that our mums provide us with a lot more than just their genes. However, does applying a stress to a mother have consequences for her offspring? It is becoming increasingly apparent that maternal effects can have pervasive consequences throughout an organism’s life history. These maternal effects may be a simple reflection of the mother’s phenotype (eg. large mothers produce large offspring). Alternatively, mothers may adjust the phenotypes of their offspring to enhance their fitness (eg. transfer of disease resistance). Variability in the fitness of offspring can have a significant impact on population dynamics. Therefore, I am interested in examining the costs and benefits of a variety of maternal stressors throughout the life history of their offspring.
Scott Burgess - Ph. D. Candidate
Mechanisms of population connectivity
I am interested in understanding the relative importance of processes involved in “effective” connectivity between sub-populations and what their consequences are for the ecology and evolution of marine organisms. Specifically, I am exploring the effects of physiological costs of dispersal on habitat selection and fitness. I am also interested in how increases in ocean temperature may accelerate these physiological costs and alter population dynamics and potential for adaptation.
Quantitative Genetics in the Sea
We all have things we are good at and things we are not so good at. For example, I can kick a ball yet I can’t sing, no matter how hard I may try it is safe to say I will not be the next Idol. The things we are good and bad at doing are generally determined by our experiences and our background. I am interested in how an individual’s environmental experiences and genetic background drive variations in their performance. I will use marine species as models to understand how natural and sexual selection affect the performance of individuals in the field and how genetic variance structure determines an individuals’ response to selection.