Fri, October 11, 2019 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH LABORATORY (AERL). IOF Seminar Series
Speaker: Laura Parfrey
Assistant Professor, UBC Departments for Botany and Zoology
Location: AERL Theatre
Multicellular marine organisms host diverse collections of microbes on their surface and within their tissues. These microbes are integral to the biology of the host, playing key roles in defense, development, and nutrient acquisition. Yet, we do not understand basic parameters of community assembly and dynamics on marine hosts. For example, is there a core microbiota for each species that performs essential functions? Are microbial taxa species-specific, or are they broadly shared across seaweed species? We investigate these questions through experiments and surveys of the epibiotic communities of bacteria and protists on more that 40 species of seagrasses, seaweeds, and sea stars in the nearshore environment along the central coast of British Columbia