Ecophysiology & Climate Change

The global ocean is rapidly changing - ocean warming, more frequent marine heatwaves, ocean acidification and oxygen loss will continue to impact our marine ecosystems (IPCC 2023). My lab is interested in understanding the impacts of climate change stressors on organismal physiology, ecology and evolution. Temperature exerts a major influence on all biological processes due to the temperature dependence of biochemical reactions, such as metabolic rates. My research has shown that kelp have different thermal tolerance limits across different stages of their life cycle, which is important to understand the ecosystem-scale response of kelp forests to elevated ocean temperatures. My lab will continue to study the impacts of climate change on the ecophysiology of marine algae, focusing on important functions such as nutrient uptake and photosynthesis. We hope to better understand and predict the ways that kelp forests will respond to climate change stressors.

In addition to working on marine algae, I studied the impacts of climate change on snow algal communities in the North Cascade Mountains as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. Snow algae are microalgae that live at near-zero temperatures in alpine ecosystems worldwide. They have bright pigments that color the frozen landscape, darkening the snow surface and lowering its albedo, which accelerates snowmelt. Few studies have quantified snow algal productivity or the factors that drive variation in the intensity of snow algae blooms. We are studying how snow algal productivity will respond to future environmental conditions such as rising atmospheric CO₂ levels. This research is in collaboration with Dr. Robin Kodner at Western Washington University and Dr. Jodi Young at the University of Washington-Seattle.