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Sanford Lab PeopleEric Sanford
Current Graduate Students:
Morgan Kelly I'm interested in the evolutionary forces that set and maintain species geographic range limits. Understanding the distribution of genetic variation for environmental tolerance traits is a prerequisite to testing hypotheses about the evolutionary causes of range boundaries, and to predicting species’ responses to climate change. I am using a series of selection experiments to measure heritable variation in the thermal tolerance of the tidepool copepod Tigriopus californicus, both within populations and across the species’ geographic range. These experiments will provide insight into the capacity for thermal tolerance to evolve in response to warming temperatures. In other research, I am also using microsatellite markers to look at factors affecting paternity success in the pink volcano barnacle Tetraclita rubescens. I am a member of the Population Biology Graduate Group.
Evelyne Sui Ling Kuo I am a PhD candidate in the Graduate Group in Ecology, and I am generally interested in questions regarding the biogeography, ecology, and evolution of marine invertebrates, and the impacts of climate change on marine organisms. My research focuses on understanding factors that maintain biogeographic range boundaries of marine organisms. To address this question, I am using a specialist limpet Lottia insessa, which is found exclusively on the kelp Egregia menziesii. Using a combination of field experiments, laboratory studies and modeling, I am testing whether the northern range limit of this species is constrained by (1) its physiological intolerance of the temperatures found beyond the range boundary, (2) the lack of suitable habitat (i.e., its host alga E. menziesii), (3) more frequent disturbances and local population extinction beyond the range boundary, and/or (4) dispersal barriers related to oceanographic processes and long stretches of unsuitable sandy habitat. To explore how species range limits may be impacted by climate change, I will be rearing L. insessa larvae under elevated water temperatures and CO2 concentrations, to gain insight into how larval development (and hence pelagic larval duration and dispersal potential) may be altered under future climate change scenarios.
Dan Swezey I am broadly interested in the impacts of climate change on global marine ecosystems. As a member of the Population Biology Graduate Group and the REACH (Responding to Rapid Environmental Change) IGERT at UC Davis, I have become particularly interested in viewing these questions through an interdisciplinary lens. My research involves the integration of ecological information (observed and tested in both field and lab) with techniques and technologies common in the field of modern population genetics. The goal of this type of analysis is the detection of past evolutionary “signatures” that have shaped patterns and processes in natural populations. I hope to answer specific questions about the potential of these signatures to affect ecological change in the future. Like many of my peers in the Sanford Lab, I am interested in the factors that dictate species range boundaries as well as the changes that occur in species interactions along biotic and abiotic stress gradients. At the same time, I remain vitally interested in connecting ecological findings to practical conservation decision-making and I am involved with research in multiple systems including agriculture landscapes, invaded riparian habitat, and the deep sea. Other Lab Members:
Kirk Sato As the research technician in the Sanford Lab, I assist with a variety of laboratory and field projects. I’m interested in marine ecology, predator-prey interactions, ocean acidification, and science education — and I’m thinking about graduate studies in the future. Past Lab Members: Julia Blum (Masters, 2009) |
