Independent Projects
2023
Roger Wilder ’25
Pavlov's fish? Mummichog spatial cognition through maze learning
Emma Fasullo ’25
A Matter of Quartz? Examining Substrate Composition and the Settlement of Benthic Communities
Finn Torres ’25
A Snail of Two Cities: How invasive crustaceans in Maine have changed our snails’ sense of smell
Camille Beaulieu ’25
Aqua-scuse Me? Assessing viability of multi-trophic aquaculture systems using Eastern Oysters and Knotted Wrack
Emma Olney ’25
Burrowed Breath: Invasive Carcinus maenas abundance and salt marsh sediment oxygen
Abigail Steinwachs ’25
The Effect of Oyster Farms on Phytoplankton Abundance in the New Meadows River
Caroline Vauclain ’25
Carbon and Nitrogen in Sediment Surrounding Oyster Farms
Luisa Wolcott-Breen ’25
Carcinus Menace: investigating population size and coloration in an invasive species
Jolie Ganzell ’25
[OH-] Crab! The effects of ocean acidification on Carcinus maenas metabolism
Eva Ahn ’26
Scallops These Days! Valve Opening Response of Placopecten magellanicus to Particle Video Stimuli
Danny Lee ’25
Surf n’ Turf: The Physiological Effects of Pork vs. Fish Diet on Homarus americanus
James Benavides ’25
Going for a Light Swim: The Impact of Artificial Light Intensities on Placopecten magellanicus Swimming Behavior
2022
Aden Ho
Plastic[ity]: the effect of microplastics on barnacle morphological plasticity
Noah Desmarais
Not as simple as strength: the effect of temperature on predator-prey interactions between Asterias forbesi and Mytilus edulis
Renske Kerkhofs
What shellfish tell fish: sound production in the american lobster (Homarus americanus)
Robyn Walker-Spencer
Flow rate and the plankton consumption of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in the presence of biofouling vase tunicate (Ciona intestinalis)
Shea Tyrrell
Worming out of trouble: the effect of mechanical and chemical cues from Cancer irroratus on the behavior of polychaete Alitta virens
Neena Goldthwaite
You are what you eat, or you eat what you are? the impacts of foraging decisions on the color association between an herbivorous gastropod and its macroalgal host
Nicholas Yoong
If you build it will they come? how seasonal variation in seagrass habitat structure drives changes in epifaunal community diversity
Lucy Dutton
A plastic benthos: measuring the deposition and spread of microplastics in the rural ecosystems of Harpswell Sound, ME
Sadie McClean
Lobster communities are in for an acidic change: evaluating interactions between american lobsters (Homarus americanus) under manipulated ph levels
2021
Sophia Adami-Sampson
Plastic Pearls: Microplastics in farmed easter oysters (Crassostrea virginica) across open bay and sheltered embayment regions in the Gulf of Maine
Olivia Bronzo-Munich
Investigating the possibility of interpopulation variation in induced defense against Littorina obtusata in the macroalgae, Fucus vesiculosus under thermal stress
Sophie Burchell
A Bucket of Fun(dulus): The effect of restricted tidal flow on population and community structure in salt marsh fishes
Eban Charles
An analysis of the impacts that temperature and pH have on juvenile American lobster's behavioral response to the scent of Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata)
Jean Clemente
European green crabs (Carcinus maenas) ameliorate shading impact in a Maine salt marsh
Liam Healy
Assessing the feedubng ability and preference of Carcinus maenas in relation to Mytilus edulis
Deva Holliman
Evidence of local adaptation in the temperate coral Astrangia poculata
Sophie Lisle
A study of microplastic transfer between Mytilus edulis and its consumer, Carcinus maenas
Kellie Navarro
Examining the effects of acute cold stres on the holobiont of Astrangia poculata using gene expression analyses
Catherine Pattie
Investigating Sea Star wasting: Effects of hypoxia on Maine's common sea star (Asterias spp.)
Eliza Rhee
Evaluation of Metridium senile physiological and neurochemical responses to UVA and UVB radiation
Kyra Tan
Investigating epizootic shell disease progression in Maine's native crabs under temperature stress
2019
Elizabeth Baker
Muddy Buddies: Bacterial diversity increases in sediment associated with Zostera marina beds
Benjamin Felser
No flow, no grow: The impact of flow on metabolic scaling and growth in a colonial ascidian
Scott Kuhnle
Don’t Stop My Flow: Effects of Flow Rates and Siphon Dimensions on Mercenaria mercenaria
Growth
Mindy Leder
The impact of predator scent cues and prolonged darkness on the growth, morphology, and respiration of Semibalanus balanoides
Anna Messinger
It’s getting hot in here: predicting ocean warming effects on predator-prey interaction and community structure through consumption and metabolism of Nucella lapillus and Mytilus edulis.
Hannah Randazzo
Down in arms: ocean acidification inhibits growth and calcification of regenerating Asterias forbesi arms
Sophie Walton
An Analysis of Energy Tradeoffs in Mytilus edulis: If Mytilus edulis Thicken Their Shells to Defend Against Carcinus maenus, Do Their Defenses to Asterias forbesi Weaken?
Kaya Wurtzel
Impact of Flow and Grouping on Placopectin magellanicus Growth
Hannah Zuklie
Resilient rasping radula: assessing Nucella lapillus-Mytilus edulis predator-prey interactions with ocean acidification
2018
Brendan Murtha
Gulls be Gone: Assessing the impacts of Larus sp. predation on intertidal community structure in Harpswell Sound, Maine
James O'Shea
Rocky intertidal community structure in the Gulf of Maine
Ayana Harscoet
Smells Fishy: Investigating the olfactory response of juvenile lobsters to cod under increased temperatures
Katherine Bacall
Unsettling snails: Nucella lapillus predation on Spirorbis settlement behavior and habitat selection
Katie Galletta
Boring science? The effect of urchin predation on boring sponge morphology
Julian Garrison
Salt in the wound: Relationship between salinity gradients, stomatal morphology, and epigenetics in the common reed, Phragmites australis
Hannah Konkel
Home is where the heterozygotes are: How do the life histories of L. saxatilis, and L. obtusata affect population differentiation between exposed and protected sites?
Annie Curtis-Dyck
Carbon sequestration in seagrass beds; What's all the fuss about?
Marie Caspard
pH effects on Saccharina latissima photosythetic efficiency and ocean acidification amelioration potential
Graham Bendickson
Living in a Changing Ocean: Warming and food availability's impact on stored lipid weight in a Calanoid copepod
2017
Clayton Starr
The rise of a Super Snail: The effects of temperature and acidity on Nucella lapillus feeding rates
David Anderson
A battle of the wits: comparing the learning ability of the invasive crab Carcinus maenas to the native crab Cancer inornatus in the Gulf of Maine
Hugh Cipparone
Wild Crabs of the North: Optimal prey selection and distinct populations of the European Green Crab
Charlotte Nash
Phragmites australis Invasion Impacts on Zonation and Carbon Sequestration of a Restored Brackish Tidal Marsh
Patrick Warner
Getting Fishy: Fish Populations in Harpswell Sound
Zakir Bulmer
Stressed-out Lobsters: Thermal Stress, Microbes, and the American Lobster, Homarus americanus
Jesse Dunn
Living with this mess: symbiosis in aquaculture to cope with ocean acidification
Claire Goffinet
Plastic accumulation within stomach content of Fundulus heteroclitus in Maine coastal waters
Caroline Godfrey
Munching on Microplastics: Consumption Rate of Polystyrene Microplastics in the Intertidal Copepod Tigriopus californicus
2016
Sam Walkes
Testing desiccation stresses and visual predation as mechanisms for maintaining a potential color polymorphism cline
Meret Beutler
Saving the snails: how feeding preferences of Carcinus maenas on Littorina littorea may determine the survival of Ilyanassa obsoleta
Caroline Carter
Is the European Periwinkle invasion really from Europe?
Anna Blaustein
Does Mytilus edulis ingest and process the microplastics in Harpswell Sound?
Maya Morduch-Toubman
Finding an Easy and Efficient Method of Growing Microalgage for Biofuel: The Effect of Difference in Light and Nitrogen on Phaeodactylum tricornutum Lipid Production
Isaac Schuchat
Multiple Species Interactions in Harpswell Sound Lobster Traps
Jonathan Harrison
Fundulus heteroclitus lateralization efficacy in response to rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification
Amber Rock
The Effects of Climate Change Stressors on the Sea Star, Asterias forbesi, Regeneration
Jackie Ricca
The Effects of Ocean Acidification on Shell Resource and Assessment Behavior of Hermit Crab Pagarus longicarpus
Ripley Mayfield
The Effects of Eutrophication and Oxygen Depletion on Bioluminescence in the Tropical Dinoflagellate Pyrocystis lunula
Elizabeth Givens
Predation of the softshell clam Mya arenaria by the nemertean worm
Hanna Miller
Mya arenaria and the impact of sediment pore water
2015
Madeline Schuldt
Disease on the Half Shell: Prevalence of the protistan pathogen MSX in oysters throughout coastal Maine
Andrew R. Villeneuve
D. vexillum genetic diversity in GOM It’s snot funny: Genetic diversity and invasion scenarios of Didemnum vexillum in the Gulf of Maine
Emily Bodell
The Effects of Nutrient Addition and Phytoplankton interactions on Ascophyllum nodosum from the Gulf of Maine
Alana Luzzio
Examining the Relationship Between Environmental Parameters and Bivalve Abundance in the Gulf of Maine
Aidan Coyle
Osmolyte Transport in Phytoplankton: Response to Salinity Shifts
Samantha Garvey
Is it getting hot in here? The effects of shell shape and color to rocky intertidal temperature adaptation in Nucella lapillus