Evolutionary Fish Ecology

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:

• Siegfried, E. and Johnson, D.W. 2023. Experimental ocean acidification and food limitation reveals altered energy budgets and synergistic effects on mortality of larvae of a coastal fish. Frontiers in Marine Science 10 (publ 31 August 2023)

• Siegfried, E. and Johnson, D.W. 2023. Effects of ocean acidification and warming on the specific dynamic action of California Grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) larvae. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 563:151893

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

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

• Jones, L.F., Lou, R.N., Murray, C.S., Robert, D., Bourne, C.M., Bouchard, C., Kučka, M., Chan, Y.F., Carlon, D.B., Wiley, D.N., Therkildsen, N.O., and Baumann, H. (2022) Two distinct population clusters of Northern sand lance (Ammodytes dubius) on the Northwest Atlantic shelf revealed by whole genome sequencing. ICES Journal of Marine Science 80:122-132

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 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 recently resubmitted a first PhD chapter to the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society:

• Zavell, M.D., Mouland, M.E.P., Schultz, E.T., and Baumann, H.
  Temperature- and ration-dependent winter growth in Northern stock Black Sea Bass juveniles
  Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (resubmitted)

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

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