NEWS: WE ARE NSF FUNDED!

Colleagues Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn (UMass Lowell), Tom Miller (U Maryland), and I were recently awarded a $1.3 million grant to continue my work on within-generation carryover effects in oysters (Donelan et al. 2021 and 2023, just accepted at Global Change Biology).

We'll explore how they vary across ontogeny, their potential mechanisms, and effects on coastal ecosystems.

Student recruitment for the project has ended. We appreciate your interest in our work, please check back for future opportunities.

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Transgenerational &
early life plasticity

Plasticity & predation risk

Plasticity & species invasions

Parental and early life environments can prime organisms for the environments they are likely to face in the future. Phenotypic changes that arise as a result of parental and early life effects may be functionally adaptive if they improve offspring fitness, thereby creating feedbacks that influence evolutionary trajectories. ​

My work on the transgenerational effects of predation risk in rocky intertidal prey (the snail Nucella lapillus) is the first to show transgenerational effects of predation risk in a marine system. My postdoctoral research explores how early life exposure to hypoxia and warming affects subsequent responses to those stressors in eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica).

The fear of being eaten by a predator can modify prey traits. These effects can be highly dependent on individual prey traits, such as sex, and environmental context, such as habitat quality.

My work has focused on the context-dependencies of within-generational effects of predation risk on prey behavior, physiology, and fitness on rocky shores.

Climate change is facilitating the invasion of non-native species, and phenotypic plasticity can be a key trait that allows invasive species to thrive in novel environments. Moreover, once established, invasive species can themselves induce plasticity in native species.

My current postdoctoral work at Smithsonian explores reproductive plasticity in hull-fouling marine invertebrates like barnacles and how environmental conditions along transit routes will influence reproductive potential and invasions. 

I've also explored how a non-native cyanobacteria affects condition and habitat use in bay scallops on Nantucket Island.