Biological Oceanography
Climate Change
My research focuses on the biology and physiology of photosynthetic marine organisms - primarily marine phytoplankton and corals. Currently my lab focuses on the acquisition and processing of inorganic carbon for photosynthesis and calcification in phytoplankton and corals. These processes are closely connected with the response of organisms to rising CO2 in seawater (ocean acidification) that is occuring as a result of release of CO2 into the atmosphere. We study the basic physiology of inorganic carbon acquisition, developing new methods to do so, and also the ways in which the environment alters these physiologial processes (ecophysiology).