• BaumannLab-July2023

Hannes Baumann (PI)

hbpic2

Hannes Baumann started the 'Evolutionary Fish Ecology' Lab in September 2014 to expand ecological and evolutionary frontiers via experimental, field, and modeling work. His work investigates, how coastal marine organisms will cope with the simultaneous changes in their environment caused by global and regional human activity, and how they are already adapted to environmental fluctuations in e.g. temperature, oxygen, or pH.

Local field work includes maintaining deployed sensors, frequent collections with plankton nets and beach seines, in addition to laboratory rearing of fish, physiological measurements, and otolith microstructure analysis - all of which can incorporate the help of interested and ambitious undergraduate students searching for hands-on experience and own projects.



Current grants:

  • 2024 – Baumann, H., Matassa, C., Batta-Lona, P., Gottschall, K. A first comprehensive evaluation of Black Sea Bass diets in Long Island Sound. Connecticut Sea Grant College Program R/LR-31 ($149,862 2 years)
  • 2023 – Baumann, H., Baumann, Z. Expanding the silverside system to quantify how climate gradients determine co- and countergradient adaptation strength in the ocean. NSF-OCE #2313288, 7/15/23 - 7/14/26, $497,000
  • 2023 – Baumann, H., Wiley, D., Therkildsen, N.O., Murray, C.S. ORCC: Collaborative Research: Mechanisms underpinning the unusual, high CO2 sensitivity of sand lances, key forage fishes on the Northwest Atlantic Shelf. NSF-ORCC #2307813, 8/15/23 - 7/14/2026, $1,050,000
  • 2022 – Baumann, H. Towards a fully annotated reference genome of Northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius. UConn College of Liberal Arts and Sciences #2546140 ($14,455).
  • 2022 – Baumann, H., Pacileo, D., Benway, J., and McBride, R.S. Increasing Black Sea Bass abundance in Long Island Sound: a local or broader regional phenomenon? Connecticut Sea Grant College Program R/LR-30 ($149,173 2 years).

Past grants

Past grants:

  • 2020 – Baumann, H., Savoy, T., Benway, J., and Pacileo, D. A re-emergent spawning population of Atlantic Sturgeon in the Connecticut River? Combined age analyses and telemetry data will provide new insights. Connecticut Sea Grant College Program ($149,690 2 years). Project page
  • 2018 – Therkildsen, N. and Baumann, H. Collaborative research: The genomic underpinnings of local adaptation despite gene flow along a coastal environmental cline. NSF-OCE #1756316 ($325,388 3 years) Project page
  • 2018 - Wiley, D., Kaufman, L., Baumann, H. and Llopiz, J. Productivity and ecology of sand habitats. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), interagency agreement with DOC/NOAA/OAR ($1,050,000 3 years)
  • 2016 - Dam, H., Baumann, H., Finiguerra, M., and Pespeni, M. Collaborative Research: Transgenerational phenotypic and genomic responses of marine copepods to the interactive effects of temperature and CO2. NSF-OCE #1550180 ($609,684 3 years) Project page
  • 2016 - Baumann, H. and Nye, J. Collaborative research: Understanding the effects of acidification and hypoxia within and across generations in a coastal marine fish. NSF Project# 1536336 ($829,035 3 years) Project page
  • 2016 - Baumann, H., Wiley, D. Kaufman, L., Valentine, P., and Gallager, S. Sensitivity of larval and juvenile sand lance Ammodytes dubius on Stellwagen Bank to predicted ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation. Northeast Regional SeaGrant Consortium ($198,393 2 years) Project page
  • 2016 - Dam, H., Finiguerra, M., and Baumann, H. Predicting the performance of the copepod Acartia tonsa under future conditions of temperature and CO2. Connecticut Sea Grant College Program ($149,969 2 years).
  • 2016 - Baumann, H. and Rader, L. Lifting a treasure: Full digitization of Project Oceanology’s 40+ years of coastal research data in Long Island Sound. Connecticut Sea Grant Project# PD-15-14 ($5,000).

Emma Siegfried MSc (PhD student)

Emma-Siegfried

Emma Siegfried joined our lab as a PhD student in fall 2023, after graduating from California State University at Long Beach in summer 2023 with her M.S. Emma's has a strong experimental background and in California has studied effects of ocean acidification on the early life stages of grunion, a famous coastal marine forage fish on the US Pacific coast.

Emma is now trying to parlay her expertise into a new experimental challenge, which is to find out whether other sand lance species are equally CO2 sensitive than the Northern sand lance Ammodytes dubius (NSF-ORCC #2307813). Welcome to the east coast, Emma, and to your new chapter of life and science!


Two recent publications from Emma's M.S. thesis:


[American sand lance, ocean acidification, climate change]
emma.siegfried@uconn.edu


Lucas Jones MSc (PhD student)

Lucas-Jones-grad

Lucas Jones technically started as a PhD student in our lab in fall 2022, but he has been an invaluable lab member for much longer than that already. It's quite a story.

He first volunteered as an undergraduate student in 2017 and because of his dedication and experimental talent quickly became an indispensable asset to our scientific operations. He then continued to leverage his familiarity with our rearing system to further investigate the climate sensitivity and population characteristics of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius), an important winter-spawning forage fish in the Gulf of Maine. In 2019, after getting his bachelors degree from the University of Connecticut, he became a graduate student and for his Master thesis research he broadened his skill set again and ventured into genomics and bioinformatics. In December 2021, he presented his M.S. thesis titled:

"Using low-coverage, whole genome sequencing to study Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) population connectivity in the Northwest Atlantic" (UConn Library Digital Repository)


The corresponding manuscript has been published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science

For his PhD research, Lucas now seeks to take sand lance climate sensitivity and genomics to the next level and learn more about why this enigmatic species is so CO2 sensitive and how its genetic population structure may help it adapt.


[Northern sand lance, population dynamics, connectivity, climate change]
lucas.jones@uconn.edu


Max Zavell (PhD student)

Max-Zawell

Max Zavell started as a PhD student in our lab in fall 2020, after graduating in May 2020 with his Bachelor from the University of Rhode Island. Max has been working experimentally since to explore questions of coastal fish and climate change. In addition to Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia), his work has broken new ground for our lab by starting to work with Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata). Growth, physiology, and sex determination of this northernmost grouper species are of great interest, given its recent, explosive increase in abundance in Long Island Sound and the larger northwest Atlantic shelf.

Max published a first PhD chapter in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society:


[Atlantic Silverside, Black Sea Bass, metabolism, sex determination, age, growth, migration, climate sensitivity]
max.zavell@uconn.edu


David Riser (MS student)

David-Riser

David Riser started his Masters in September 2020 after graduating with his Bachelor from the University of Connecticut and a Major in Marine Sciences. David already looks back on a successful career in the US Coast Guard, but now ventures to develop academic chops and expertise. In close collaboration with CT DEEP, he is analyzing time series of Black Sea Bass catches in Long Island Sound and has already become an ageing expert of Black Sea Bass using otoliths, yielding important insights how these fish grow in Long Island Sound.


[Black Sea Bass Centropristis striata, otoliths, age, growth, migration]
david.j.riser@uconn.edu


Undergraduate volunteers, summer students

Volunteering and working as an undergraduate in our lab is a great way to explore and develop your fascination with Fish Biology, Ecology, and Evolution, while gathering practical and analytical skills. And if it's not 'your cup of tea' - no hard feelings.


Zehui-Sun
Zehui Sun (fall 2022)

Devan-Barnum
Devan Barnum (spring - fall 2022)

Matthew-Mouland
Matthew Mouland (spring 2021 - fall 2022)

Julia-Jones
Julia Jones (fall 2020 - spring 2021)

Shane-Remele
Shane Remele (fall 2020)

David-Riser
David Riser (spring 2020)

Breanna-Racicot
Breanna Racicot (fall 2019)

Sarina-Dery
Sarina Dery (fall 2019)

Lillian-Pecerillo
Lillian Pecerillo (spring 2019)

Lucas-Jones
Lucas Jones (summer 2018 -spring 2019)

Mia-Dupuis
Mia Dupuis (spring 2018 - spring 2019)

Gere-Johnson
Gere Johnson (fall 2018)

Mackenzie-Blanusa
Mackenzie Blanusa (fall 2017 - summer 2018)

Isaiah-Mayo_s
Isaiah Mayo (spring 2017 - spring 2018)

Charles-Dyke_s
Charles Dyke (summer 2017 - spring 2018)

Rainer-Moy-Huwyler
Rainer Moy-Huwyler (fall 2016 - spring 2017)

Rafeed-Hussain
Rafeed Hussain (summer, fall 2016)

JamesHarrington
James Harrington (fall 2016 - spring 2017)

TylerClouthier
Tyler Clouthier (fall 2016 - spring 2017)

Elizabeth-Karamavros
Elizabeth Karamavros (summer 2015 - summer 2016)

Brittany-Besaw
Brittany Besaw (summer 2016)

Wes-Huffman
Wes Huffman (summer 2015 - summer 2016)

Megan-Barry
Megan Barry (fall 2015 - summer 2016)

Molly-Hughes
Molly Hughes (summer 2015, read her blog)