Manahan Lab Group

The general question we study is the adaptation potential of marine organisms to environmental change. The specific area of research being addressed in my laboratory group is the environmental physiology of development of marine invertebrates, especially the early stages of development (“larvae”). Understanding growth and development of any animal in its natural environment – be it terrestrial or aquatic – is a complex process. For species of marine animals, the problem of understanding the biology of larval stages is further complicated by the vast scales and changing environments of the world’s oceans over which life-history strategies are known to vary.