Paige Becker of the Buston Lab, Erin Frates of the Marlow Lab, Ninon Martinez of the Finnerty Lab, and Ally Swank of the Davies Lab are this year’s recipients of Warren-McLeod Semester Fellowships.
The Warren-McLeod Graduate Fellowship in Marine Science was established in 1990 by Patricia Warren (the granddaughter of BU’s 1st President, William Fairfield Warren) to support graduate students conducting research in marine science. Guy McLeod was Patricia’s brother-in-law and the long-time director of research at the New England Aquarium. He was a marine biologist, whose scholarship focused on the role of iron, vanadium, and other metal ions on the physiological ecology of marine animals.
Paige is a PhD candidate in the Buston Lab. She is currently studying the underlying mechanisms of biparental care negotiations. Understanding variation in biparental care is important as it is a cooperative interaction benefitting both parents, yet involves underlying conflict, as each parent may benefit by shifting care to its partner. Care may reflect dynamic negotiations influenced by asymmetries in internal state, access to information, and social dynamics. We lack understanding of how parents mutually influence care and how those negotiations arise and are maintained. Therefore, she is investigating (1) the personality and plasticity of parental care across sex change and (2) the influence of female power, policing, and punishment on paternal care using the protandrous anemonefish,
Amphiprion percula.To explore components of negotiation, she is completing two long-term field experiments in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and two lab-based experiments.
In PNG, to assess goal (1), she is finishing up a year-long experiment with A. percula, involving SCUBA surveys, experimental removal of female breeders, and pre- and post- sex-change behavioral filming. The completion of this project is supported by the Warren McLeod.
For goal (2), she is combining 3D video tracking with AI and machine-learning analysis to statistically analyze fine-scale spatiotemporal interactions among the female, male, and clutch, allowing rigorous quantification of female policing behaviors in the field. Additionally, she is utilizing 60 breeding pairs for a two-part lab experiment where she 1) performed a 2×2 cross-factored experiment looking at male/female care and interactions in the presence of a foreign clutch, with/without the presence of a foreign female, and 2) will experimentally block isotocin (reproductive hormone), and measure male and female care and interactions.
These combined behavioral and endocrinal experiments elucidate the role of negotiations influencing parental care, and reveal cooperative, yet unbalanced social dynamics.
Erin is studying microbial communities grown on mineral printed, electrically active surfaces. This work will evaluate changes in microbial abundances, community composition, and metabolic activity according to variations in redox potential, as well as how biologic and electrical activity alters mineral characteristics.
About half of reef building corals have been found to exist in non-reef ecosystems like among mangrove roots and amidst seagrass beds in conditions quite different and sometimes much harsher from where they normally exist on reefs. Ninon’s research focuses on stony corals that exist across these different marine habitats in Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, Belize. Ninon’s trying to understand what facilitates these corals’ survival, whether they’re genetically adapted to these different conditions, able to acclimate through plasticity of their microbiome and physical form, or a combination of the two. This summer, Ninon plans to explore more natural populations of these corals in strange places.
Ally’s PhD research examines how hidden genetic diversity within the Caribbean coral, Siderastrea siderea, influences ecological specialization and resilience to climate stress. Using genomic and physiological analyses, they identified three cryptic coral lineages in Panamá that occupy unique light-depth habitats and exhibit distinct thermal tolerances. They are now expanding this work across the Caribbean using population genomics and environmental data to understand how environmental specialization shapes coral adaptation and connectivity. Ally’s research demonstrates that recognizing hidden coral diversity is critical for accurately predicting reef resilience and improving restoration strategies under climate change.
Congratulations, Paige, Erin, Ninon, and Ally!