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"Turtle Barnacles"
"Turtle Barnacles"
Our NSF-funded project is with Dr. John Zardus, Dr. Erik Sotka, and others to study the phylogenetic, population genetic, and host association aspects of coronuloid barnacles. These barnacles live on sea turtles, whales, crabs, and other organisms, so you may hear them called "whale barnacles" also. Our study is to understand if patterns of diversity are maintained through limits to larval dispersal, patterns of host movement, or other factors. Stay tuned.
Salt Marsh Mussels
Salt Marsh Mussels
This is funded primarily by the Elaine Lutz Fund for Aquatic Biodiversity. Myself and some students are exploring the evolutionary ecology of this ecosystem-important mussel found at the base of cordgrass in salt marshes. We have one preprint out, three papers in prep, and a lot more fun stuff to do once our project kicks in at the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER in 2026.
Great Lakes Mussels
Great Lakes Mussels
A project led by Dr. Rachel Toczydlowski at the USFS Northern Research Station is funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. We will be exploring the best practices for habitat assessment, community survey, and population genetics of freshwater mussels in the Great Lakes. This builds on my experience working on unionids in the southeast, including a 2025 paper by Hayley Robinson and Pete Hazelton; I'm also the curator of aquatic invertebrates for GMNH, thus the Elliptio spinosa at left.
Why mussels?
Why mussels?
Coastal, intertidal bivalves are ecologically important from Paine 1966 to Angelini et al 2016 and beyond, and those mussels referenced encapsulate 300 million years or more of divergent evolutionary ecology - in the same taxonomic family. So much potential for understanding how diversity adapts to a changing environment! Here they are, in our southeastern and Gulf marshes, doing a big job for us. Shouldn't we know them better??
Why barnacles?
Why barnacles?
The ultimate biological 'drifters' for understanding oceanography, they have a hermaphroditic life style so everybody represents the population and how their offspring move. They interact with both local environment (as in work we have done in Balanus glandula and Chthamalus fragilis and others) and maybe epibiotic hosts - that is what we want to know for a deeper understanding of interactions between ocean changes and biotic diversity.
Why fish, and trees?
Why fish, and trees?
Because the ways that natural history and biogeography interact with trait diversity and genomic diversity are fascinating. We have funding from diverse sources such as Paint Rock FRC and the US Forest Service to be sure that we focus on thinking about local, endemic diversity -- and all it does for our local and regional ecosystems. Our lab is a melting pot of discussing life history and natural history and how genomes evolve.Â
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