Population ecology of benthic organisms

One goal in our lab is to study population dynamics of benthic species. We address this problem with field, lab, and modelling techniques, studying both the larval and adult phases of benthic invertebrates

Semibalanus balanoides © Jesús Pineda. All rights reserved.

Our currents studies on population ecology:

• Alongshore differences in population  structure of intertidal organisms. The objective of this long-term project is to investigate the relationship between differences in alongshore population dynamics and nearshore physical forcing
• Dependence of recruitment on the timing of settlement : the recruitment window
• Geographical variability in life-history traits of Semibalanus populations (link to project page)
• Population limitation of barnacles, oysters and other epibionts living on mangrove roots.
• Self recruitment in a small, isolated barnacle population. This and the last project are being conducted at the Liquid Jungle Lab, in the West coast of Panama