The Donelan lab in the Biology Department at UMass Dartmouth is recruiting 1-2 PhD students interested in evolutionary ecology in marine invertebrates. We are especially interested in legacy effects — how past environments shape organism performance in response to stress.
Students will be part of the PhD program in Integrative Biology based on main campus and have access to experimental seawater facilities at the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) in New Bedford, MA. Students will be fully funded, with at least two years of research assistant (RA) support.
Project 1: Carryover effects in eastern oysters
Are you interested in how marine species are responding to climate change? We are looking for a student to join an NSF funded project investigating how oysters (Crassostrea virginica) perform in response to low dissolved oxygen and warming after repeated exposures across their lifetimes.
The student will be co-advised by Tom Miller at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The position will start before the fall semester (January-June 2024).
Project 2: Transgenerational effects in intertidal snails
Are you interested in how organisms can acclimate to stress over time? I am looking for a student to work on questions related to transgenerational effects of predation risk in prey snails in the New England rocky intertidal. The position will start in September 2024.
More info on both positions can be found here!
