Several students of Dr. Markus Frederich’s Crab Lab (College of Arts and Sciences, School or Marine and Environmental programs; #unecrablab) presented talks and posters at the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, SICB, conference in Austin, TX. SICB is a national conference attended by close to 2000 scientists nation-wide.
Aubrey Jane (UNE B.S. Marine Science 2020, M.S. Marine Science 2023) gave a talk “Ontogenetic shifts in thermal tolerance of the American lobster, Homarus americanus”. This project is part of her master’s thesis and is funded through Dr. Frederich’s NSF research grant on lobster thermal physiology.
Julie Karlsson (Hood College Marine Biology B.S. 2023) presented her poster titled “Cardiac performance as a function of temperature in larval American lobsters (Homarus americanus). Julie is an undergraduate student at Hood College but is co-advised by Dr. Frederich and other co-PIs of his lobster NSF research grant.
Melissa Butler (M.S. Marine Science 2023) presented her poster “Dietary effects on lipid composition and subsequent phenotype in the American lobster”. This collaborative project with Maine Medical Center Research Institute is part of her master’s thesis.
Emily Pierce M.S. (PhD student UNE-UMaine) gave a talk “Squishy versus crunchy: physical characteristics affect invasive species detection using environmental DNA”. This project is funded through Dr. Frederich’s NSF EPSCoR grant and is part of her Ph.D. thesis.
Research in the Crab Lab focuses on invertebrate physiology and invasive species. Currently 4 graduate and about 10 undergraduate students explore techniques to detect and monitor native and invasive invertebrate species using eDNA, thermal tolerance of larval lobsters through oxygen consumption, gene and protein expression, the effect of ocean acidification on eDNA release in crabs, and comparing different theoretical frameworks of thermal tolerance.