Current Research
My PhD research covers multiple topics under the umbrella of studies in squid evolution and biogeography.
My four main questions are:
1. Does RNA editing affect the ability of transcriptomes to elucidate decapodiform relationships and are these sites conserved across cephalopods?
2. How did buoyancy mechanisms evolve in Oegopsida?
3. What is the biogeographical history of the family Pyroteuthidae?
4. What are the current and predicted future niches of the species in Pyroteuthidae?
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Past Research
Master's Research
Using ROV videos from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer and museum specimens, I am exploring the diversity of deep-sea incirrate octopods living in the Western North Atlantic.
My research includes three main questions:
1. What species of incirrate octopods live in the deep Western North Atlantic?
2. What habitat type is preferred by each species?
3. What is the predicted distribution of Graneledone verrucosa and Bathypolypus bairdii, two species common to the area?
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I use the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard to characterize the habitat occupied by the octopod and employ the 'biomod2' package in R to make ensemble species distribution models to predict distribution of species.
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NOAA OER Video Portal: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/oer/video/
CMECS: https://iocm.noaa.gov/cmecs/
'biomod2': https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/biomod2/index.html
Natural History Research Experience Intern
As an undergraduate intern at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History, I reviewed octopod specimens collected off of Curacao by the Deep Reef Observation Project. This project aims to gain a better understanding of the diversity of mesophotic and rariphotic reefs as a baseline for assessing the validity of the deep reef refugia hypothesis. My job as an intern was to review the sixteen octopod specimens collected through DROP and identify them. Through this work, I discovered a new species of octopus, Octopus jeraldi.
Image Courtesy of NOAA OER
Image Courtesy of CoralReefPhotos.com