Zoology's Home Page
For the majority of marine animals indirect development, where individuals pass through a larval stage before metamorphosing into juveniles and then adults, is the norm. When larvae are released they are exposed to a wide range of environmental processes as they disperse and settle into new habitats. The ways in which larvae respond to these processes can have far reaching consequences for adult individuals, population and community dynamics. One component of our research focuses both on how invertebrate larvae disperse and settle in marine environments and how biological and environmental factors influence larval condition and survival.
Marine invertebrate larvae are easily obtained in large numbers and exhibit a great degree of variation in their life histories. This makes them ideal for testing more general ideas relating to the ecology and evolution of life history traits in organisms. Currently, we are also investigating how biological and physical processes influence the life history strategies of marine invertebrates, and how effects during one life history stage are carried over to other stages in an organism’s life-cycle.
Click here to see our photos of marine invertebrate larvae