Antarctic Biodiversity

In collaboration with Ken Halanych (Auburn University) and Andy Mahon (Central Michigan University) on their project exploring the biodiversity of Antarctica, we collected numerous species of invertebrates from shelf regions of the Bellingshausen, Amundsen, and Ross Seas for morphological and genetic research. My lab has been working on the biodiversity of the ectoproct 'reef-like' gardens typically dominated by flustrid species that make leaf-shaped colonies (see below). These ectoproct gardens serve as a habitat for numerous other shelf species such as sea spiders, sea cucumbers, urchins, brittle stars, sponges, and polychaetes. We are also using transcriptomic information from various species of Antarctic and Sub-tropical ectoprocts (bryozoans) to resolve phylogenetic and evolutionary questions about how these animals adapt to disparate environmental conditions.