A common theme at all levels of biological organization, from genes to ecosystems,
is that biological outcomes depend on the inherent characteristics of individuals and their
environmental context. Much of my field ecological research has examined the role of these
contingencies in natural systems. I am increasingly interested in the expression of characteristics
in response to environmental context at other levels of biological organization and their ecological
and evolutionary implications.
I use marine macroalgae and colonial invertebrates as model systems because they are
well suited to address the themes of my work. Seaweeds and clonal invertebrates are central
features of benthic marine hard substrate communities and both taxa are easily manipulated in
field and laboratory experiments. Many have alternate sexual and asexual life histories that lend
themselves to the study of life cycle evolution. Morphological variation is often ecologically
significant and many taxa show great morphological plasticity and continuous development
making them ideal subjects for studies of interactions between genes and environment in
morphological development. I study marine benthic organisms because a great diversity of
lifestyles (often in a single lineage) coexists in one ecosystem. I study phyletically diverse
members of the marine benthos because the differences among them as plants, algae and animals
are outweighed by similarities between them in features of their development, convergent
morphologies, demography and evolution.
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