Environmental stress has multiple causes, many influenced by human activity. In the oceans this includes temperature, acidification, and the impacts of pollutants such as those from plastics. Many marine animals have a dispersive embryonic or larva planktonic phase in their life cycle, and these may be especially susceptible to stress. My group uses tools drawn from evolutionary biology, ecology, genomics, and developmental biology to study how genes and genomes change through evolutionary time, how changes impact on the phenotype via embryonic development, and how environmental factors feed into this process. We work mostly with marine species with planktonic embryos, and at both macro- and microevolutionary scales. For example, we study how major changes in the body plans of widely divergent animals have evolved, as well as how subtle differences in embryonic development and resistance to environmental stresses arise and affect populations of marine organisms and their embryos. As well as expertise with the acquisition and culture of embryos of many species, we have experience with the deployment of genomics, transcriptomics, and associated methods to address evolutionary and ecological questions.
Qualifications and Experience
BSc Zoology; PhD Developmental Genetics
