Smithsonian Environmental Research Center – “Adaptation in the sea: insights from marine invaders (Carolyn Tepolt, Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow)
Thursday, Dec. 8 4:00
Location: Druckenmiller Hall, Room 020

Marine invasive species are both subjects and agents of environmental change. As subjects, they face novel selective pressures in new environments. As agents, they can profoundly impact the ecology and evolution of invaded communities.

In her talk, Dr. Tepolt will discuss examples of both kinds of adaptation in crab species, integrating approaches from ecology, physiology, and genomics. In the invasive European green crab, temperature appears to have shaped physiology and genomics in under 100 years. In the native white-fingered mud crab, an invasive body-snatching parasite impacts host populations very differently depending on their co-evolutionary history.

Carolyn Tepolt is currently a Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow, and will be starting as an Assistant Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in March.  She has a Bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary, a Master’s degree from the University of Otago, and a PhD from Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station.