Kerry Whittaker

I study a question that concerns ecologists everywhere: Who’s there, and what are they doing? My research asks this question within the context of marine ecosystems in order to understand the distribution, connectivity, and dynamics of phytoplankton populations. Phytoplankton are the primary producers of our ocean ecosystem; free-flowing unicellular marine plants. By abosrbing sunlight and CO2, phytoplanktonic organisms make energy that supports oceanic life. They are important not only for supplying energy to upper trophic levels, but in controlling atmospheric levels of CO2. Phytoplankton provide a vital link in global carbon cycling, thus are of particular interest in today as human-produced CO2 continues to rise. My research focuses on diatoms, a type of particularly productive phytoplankton. My work uses molecular techniques to study the ways in which variations in the marine environment drive population diversity in diatoms throughout the world. I am also interested in the connectivity of populations on local, regional, and global scales. A population is defined as a genetically distinct group of organisms that can interbreed with other populations within the same species. Until not long ago, scientists assumed that the ocean environment was place of genetic homogeneity in phytoplankton; as they are free flowing organisms, one could think that they would be evenly distributed and well-mixed (leading to genetic homogeneity). Research on phytoplankton biodiversity now suggests that phytoplankton are extremely diverse, not only on the species level, but on the population and individual levels as well. Little is known about the extent of phytoplankton population diversity, the ways which those populations are connected, or the environmental drivers of population dynamics. I'm interested in further understanding these dynamics. My work focuses specifically on the diatom species, Thalassiosira rotula. I am interested in studying populations of this species throughout the world. I use genetic techniques to compare samples collected in the Gulf of Mexico, Iceland, Puget Sound, Narragansett Bay, Italy, California, and elsewhere.