Assistant Professor, Evolution and Ecology
Bodega Marine Laboratory

Species traits traditionally encompass morphology, physiology and behavior. However, most species interact with diverse microbial communities, which can influence how hosts respond to environmental stressors. In my lab, we seek to understand how host traits are influenced by host-level, microbial and environmental variation in marine foundation species, and the implications of this variation for populations, communities and ecosystems. In this talk I will provide two examples of ongoing research: 1) whether temperature and intraspecific variation in hosts and pathogens explain temporal and spatial patterns in eelgrass disease and 2) can intraspecific diversity mitigate temperature-induced bleaching in tropical corals.