Currently, I am pursuing a PhD in Marine Biology under Dr. Rachel Sipler and Dr. Sue Ziegler. My research is focused on the role that various zooplankton play in cycling nutrients to the microbial loop in coastal ecosystems along Newfoundland and Labrador. Specifically, I am interested in how excretion from zooplankton releases nutrients back into the water for use by phytoplankton and bacteria and how the size and species of the zooplankton changes this process. This is particularly important to consider as global change is expected to shift the species composition and size of organisms present in these ecosystems.
Before coming to Memorial University, I graduated with a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from the College of William & Mary in 2018. During my undergraduate education, I worked in Dr. Deborah Steinberg’s Zooplankton Ecology lab at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. In the lab, I primarily worked under Dr. Patricia Thibodeau on quantifying and measuring pteropod swimmers from the time series of Palmer LTER sediment trap samples. Additionally, I had the opportunity to participate in the Palmer LTER annual research cruise along the Antarctic Peninsula during which I helped count and identify zooplankton samples from net tows.
