President's Showcase
Sarah Smith she/her/hers
Supervising Professor: Dr. Janie Wulff
Sarah Smith is a senior in the Department of Biological Science. She began working in the Wulff Laboratory in 2020 through UROP where she cultivated Caribbean reef sponges in a closed aquaculture system. She is a certified AAUS scientific diver and has assisted on Wulff Laboratory projects in the Florida Keys and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. This past summer, she conducted research on the zoanthid Palythoa caribaeorum in the Florida Keys for her Honors Thesis. Sarah plans to continue her research on Palythoa caribaeorum at the graduate level.
Abstract
Space on coral reefs is a limiting resource for benthic invertebrates. When coral composition changes, space can open for other native sessile invertebrates to colonize. The zoanthid Palythoa caribaeorum is amongst these invertebrates. With a high tolerance to anthropogenic influence and an estimated growth rate of 0.04-0.15 mm per day, researchers and habitat managers are concerned with how this species may interact with remaining reef-building corals. However, there is little data available on the growth rate and interspecific interactions of Palythoa caribaeorum in reef systems like the Florida Keys to justify this speculation. This study aims to better understand the life history of Palythoa caribaeorum on degraded reefs in the Florida Keys by: (1) investigating whole colony growth and wounding regrowth rates, (2) determining the ability of asexually-produced ramets to colonize bare rock, and (3) analyzing their points of interaction with other common sessile invertebrate taxa.
