My main interests lie in asteroid functional morphology which means that I love the tiny features of sea stars that are often ignored. However, I have also done a lot of field work throughout the years in west coast rocky intertidal, eel grass meadows, and subtidal communities in New England, Curacao, and Panama. Currently, I am a PROTEUS Intern working on an underwater habitat that will function like the international space station under the sea! I am also an award winning photographer for 2023 Marine Life and Conservation (2nd place) in Underwater Visuals for the Underwater Society of America and 2024 Best CT Scan Micrograph for the American Microscopical Society. I am a member of the IUCN SSP Marine Star Specialist Group working on global sea star conservation with other Asterozoa experts!

Recent studies of Echinoderms have shown the importance of combining form, function, and behavior into our understanding of functional biology. Multiple studies have explored the biomechanical and fluid dynamics consequences of overall seastar gross morphology in driving processes such as lift and drag. But less is understood about how considerable differences in finescale surface morphology, such as spines, may influence performance, survival, and ultimately ecological interactions. In many of the family Asteriidae, sea stars like Asterias, are known for their active wreath organs, a collar of pedicellariae connected at the base of individual spines. Our work comparatively examines the spine morphology of the common Asteriid keystone predators, A. rubens, and A. forbesi by examining both micro- and gross morphologies using field-collected specimens. Of particular interest, in Asterias was the variation of the wreath organ loads (number of pedicellariae), presence of solitary pedicellariae, and oral surface skeletal variation. Laboratory studies are currently underway to analyze organismal boundary layer differences and oxygen consumption with activated wreath organs in the two Asterias species.

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