Bowdoin students have been based at Schiller Coastal Studies Center over the summer break pursuing a variety of research projects.
From sea snails to lobsters to sea stars (a.k.a. “starfish”), a number of undergraduates (plus one recent graduate) have been making full use of the center’s facilities, including dry labs and the seawater-filled web laboratories.
Three projects were featured at a recent presentation held at the 118-acre research center, which is located about twelve miles from the main Brunswick campus and includes two-and-a-half miles of coastline.
A common theme of the research was how marine life reacts to various stressors, caused either by changing environmental conditions or by predatory threats.
Meet the students
James Ingraham ’28 spent his time pursuing a solo project examining a type of sea snail known as the periwinkle (Littorina littorea), comparing samples from along the New England coast and looking at the effects of urbanization.
The study, supervised by Doherty Marine Biology Postdoctoral Scholar Christopher Wells, is titled “Small Snail in a Big City: Effects of Urbanization on Growth of Littorina littorea in New England Intertidal Zones.”
Court Callis ’27 is part of a team studying how lobsters in the Gulf of Maine adapt to the stress of changing temperatures. The project title is “Does Fluctuating Temperature Influence Thermal Tolerance in H. americanus Motor Networks?”
The faculty advisor on the project is Assistant Professor of Biology and Neuroscience Daniel Powell, and the other student researchers are Henry Burke ’28 and Anna Feng ’28.
As a recent graduate, Graham Lucas ’26 has been working as a postbaccalaureate researcher on a project called “No Arm, No Problem? Locomotion and Growth in 4- vs 5- Armed Sea Stars.”
Under the guidance of James R. and Helen Lee Billingsley Professor of Marine Biology Amy Johnson and Research Affiliate Olaf Ellers, Lucas and his team are studying how sea stars (commonly known as starfish) can adapt to the loss of an arm.
Also involved in the project are Ellie Carter ’28, Tipton Heminway ’28, Avery Kyle ’28, Zachery Ozols ’28, Sara Schubert ’28, and Cherish Zhao ’28.
