International Research Fellowship Program: The Ecological and Physiological Significance of Thermal Stress: Characterization of the Heat-Shock Response in Marine Snails

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

0107327 Burnaford The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four month postdoctoral research fellowship by Dr. Jennifer Burnaford to work with Dr. Peggy Turk-Boyer at CEDO Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico (twelve months) and with Dr. Gretchen Hofmann at Arizona State University (twelve months) on the ecological and physiological significance of thermal stress. The Heat-Shock Response (HSR) is a powerful means of increasing tolerance of individual organisms to physiological stress; but the consequences of an individual's HSR expression for populations and communities are poorly understood. The principal investigator will examine the interaction between HSR physiology and the distribution, behavior and fitness of natural populations of seven species of marine snails in the northern Gulf of California. These snails experience wildly variable temperatures on daily and seasonal time scales and a number of "heat hours", making them ideal for the study of HSR. By determining how frequently snails experience HSR inducing stress in the field, how the timing of the HSR varies during recovery, the long-term consequences of thermal stress in natural populations, and the importance and effectiveness of behavioral strategies for avoiding thermal stress in the field, she will significantly increase our understanding of how sub-lethal stresses affect the distribution and abundance of these species. CEDO has long-term data on species abundances and sea-surface temperatures, and several established outreach and education programs. Dr. Hofmann is a leading researcher on intertidal animals.