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Teaching classes:
General Zoology
Animal Diversity and Phylogeny
Principles of Biology
Research Fields:
My primary research interests concern the faunistic, systematics,
biogeography, and ecology of 'lower' Metazoa and Crustacea. I am concentrating
my efforts on a group of animals, collectively known as the meiofauna. Meiofauna
consists of invertebrate animals small enough to live within the interstices of
aquatic sediments (1.0-0.063 mm in total body size), and almost every major phylum
has interstitial representatives, with some phyla being exclusively meiofaunal. I am interested
in reconstructing evolutionary relationships within and among such groups as Gastrotricha, Scalidophora,
and marine Harpacticoida using advanced microscopy and molecular approaches.
I'm also interested in verifying the physical, chemical, and biological factors
influencing the distribution and abundance of meiofaunal organisms, and in assessing
the impact that stressors of natural as well as anthropogenic origin have on marine
meiobenthic communities.
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