Congratulations to Voss lab grad student Jennifer Polinski! On Wednesday, May 11th, Jennifer presented and successfully defended her Master’s thesis research. Her project, which was part of the CIOERT Mesophotic Coral Ecosystem project, focused on characterizing zooxanthellae assemblages in mesophotic M. cavernosa in the Gulf of Mexico. Jennifer used traditional techniques to determine cell density within coral tissues and chlorophyll content. She found that the mesophotic corals sampled in the Gulf contained more zooxanthellae (but similar amounts of chlorophyll per zooxanthellae cell) in comparison to corals from neighboring shallow reefs, leading to higher overall chlorophyll content in the mesophotic corals. Additionally, next-generation sequencing of samples from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary revealed similar zooxanthellae assemblage structure in shallow and mesophotic corals across three banks (East FGB, West FGB, and McGrail Bank).
Jennifer is presenting her research at the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu, HI, and a publication of these interesting findings is in the works.
Way to go Jennifer!
Jennifer is presenting her research at the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium in Honolulu, HI, and a publication of these interesting findings is in the works.
Way to go Jennifer!
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