News: Biology graduate student Amanda Kelley receives 3 year NSF research fellowship

Graduate student Amanda Kelley received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship" 3 years, $121,500. Her graduate research focuses on the eco-physiology of biological invaders, specifically the invasive crab Carcinus maenas. This species is native to the Atlantic from northern Africa to Europe, and has invaded many different regions globally. Their distribution can now be described as cosmopolitan since they are found on both coasts of North America, as well as in South America, South Africa, Japan, China, and Australia. Carcinus maenas is both eurythermal and euryhaline, and thus inhabits intertidal and subtidal zones, rocky coasts, soft bottom estuaries, embayments and marshes within its home and recipient ranges. She is interested in how populations of this non-indigenous species vary across their recipient ranges with respect to thermal and salinity tolerances. Using this information, Amanda hopes to describe their probable distribution within newly exploited recipient environments.