Studying local adaptation in Crepidula spp.

摘要

I am interested in how organisms can adapt to ongoing climate change and how patterns of adaptive evolution are influenced by dispersal. In marine invertebrates this means comparing species with dispersing planktotrophic larvae that can live in the water for weeks with direct-developing species whose young crawl away from their mother (or egg sac) as juveniles. In my dissertation research, I am hoping to answer questions relating to how different dispersal types in the gastropod genus Crepidula can influence extant and potential adaptation to warming temperatures.