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Check out this exciting article in the LA Times about our Pismo clam research! https://www.latimes.com/projects/pismo-clams/
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Congratulations to Madelyn Roycroft (our amazing lab alumna!) who was just hired by California Sea Grant as the Program Analyst for the Science Integration Team. We're so proud of you, Madelyn (we're kvelling!) and can't wait to see what amazing things you'll do at CA Sea Grant! Congrats!!
Erin and Marissa were both awarded highly-competitive CSU COAST Graduate Research Fellowships. Congratulations to them on well-deserved recognition (and funding)!
Ellie presented her poster "Comparing Shell Aging Methodologies to Analyze Growth Rate of the Pismo Clam (Tivela stultorum)" at the 113th annual meeting of the National Shellfisheries Society! She shared her work at two virtual poster sessions during the conference and enjoyed the opportunity to hear about a wide variety of research programs on shellfish!
You can view Ellie's poster here. Hannah recently presented a talk on the 'Impacts of parrotfish predation on an endangered Caribbean coral: Quantifying healing rates & recovery thresholds' at the LGBT+ STEMinar 2021 conference. She was excited to share her work with scientists from such a diverse array of STEM backgrounds and from so many countries. She hopes that conferences like these will help to increase the visibility and voice of queer scientists. To learn about other platforms that amplify the voice of LGBTQ+ scientists, visit oSTEM (Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and 500 Queer Scientists, and check out podcasts such as the Queer STEM History podcast and LGBTQ+ STEM Cast. After 9 months of COVID-19 related research delays, Abby and Hannah began socially distanced lab work yesterday! They are analyzing the nutritional value of fish feces targeted by herbivores & detritivores to better understand the role of coprophagy in nutrient cycling on coral reefs.
An article on Hannah's master's research on 'Recovery of Orbicella annularis corals from parrotfish predation' was featured in this month's edition of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance newsletter, Bionews – available here.
We're excited to share our work with other researchers, managers, and community members in the Caribbean! A recent graduate from the Marine Conservation Lab, Hannah Rempel, was awarded the best 15-minute talk at the Western Society of Naturalists 2020 conference. She presented part of her master's research on 'Ecological drivers of parrotfish corallivory across multiple spatial scales in the Caribbean'. Congratulations, Hannah! You can watch her talk below: Both graduate and undergraduate students from our lab had a great time presenting research virtually at the 101st meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists conference! Age and growth of Pismo clam populations:
Coprophagy by tropical herbivorous fishes:
Ecological drivers of parrotfish predation on coral communities:
Parrotfishes and surgeonfishes are important herbivores on Caribbean reefs, but did you know that they also consume fish feces (a behavior known as coprophagy)? Master’s student Hannah Rempel discovered that they some species regularly consume the feces of the planktivore Brown chromis while conducting research in Bonaire last year. To better understand this novel behavior, Hannah and undergraduate Abby Siebert are are evaluating species-specific patterns of coprophagy by herbivorous fishes on Caribbean reefs.  A Princess parrotfish (Scarus taeniopterus) and Blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) compete for a Brown chromis (Chromis multilineata) fecal pellet, circled in red. Image copyright Hannah Rempel 2019, not for use without permission. Why do they do this? Maybe for a little 'Vitamin Sea'. We theorize that the feces of planktivores may provide an important nutritional supplement to their algae-dominated diet. Last summer, Abby was awarded a Cal Poly FROST Undergraduate Research Program fellowship to study the nutritional quality of fecal samples with Hannah. She is continuing this research for her senior project, evaluating the carbohydrate, lipid, and protein and trace mineral content of Brown chromis feces, which will help us better understand the nutritional drivers of this behavior.
Want to learn more about this work? Abby gave a virtual talk at The California Central Coast Chapter of The Wildlife Society's annual symposium earlier in October and will be presenting a poster at The Western Society of Naturalists in November. Stay tuned for more updates, as moving forward Abby will continue presenting this research at scientific conferences and we anticipate a research paper led by Hannah and Abby will be forthcoming next year. |
Well, we're a collection of science-minded marine misfits. But we're always up to something... Archives
November 2021
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