Randi Rotjan
Tufts University, MA·Ecology & Evolution
Most tropical corals depend on photosynthetic algae that live inside their tissues. If warming water disrupts this partnership, the corals bleach and often die.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
Physiology
- Topics
coral symbiosis
Astrangia poculata
Northern Star Coral
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2027
What they work on
- Measure how symbiotic state, from nearly algae-free white colonies to algae-rich brown ones, affects reproductive investment in the Northern Star Coral Astrangia poculata.
- Test whether larvae from colonies with different symbiotic states differ in performance, as a measure of the fitness costs and benefits of hosting the alga Breviolum psygmophilum.
- Construct, parameterize and validate a dynamic energy budget model of the A. poculata–B. psygmophilum symbiosis to describe how the coral acquires, spends and needs energy.
More about the research
Because this dependence is obligate, meaning the coral cannot live without its algae, it is hard to measure what the partnership actually costs and gives the coral. The Northern Star Coral, Astrangia poculata, offers a way around this problem. This common coral of temperate East Coast waters has a facultative symbiosis: it can live healthily with many or few cells of its alga, Breviolum psygmophilum. White colonies with few algae and brown colonies full of algae grow side by side under the same conditions. That poses an evolutionary puzzle, since one state would usually be expected to win out.
Why it matters
As ocean conditions worsen for corals worldwide, knowing how corals gain and use energy with and without their algae could help explain why some corals tolerate losing their symbionts. A model of the coral's energy budget could inform how scientists predict coral reproduction and survival under changing environments, supporting coral conservation.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Liza Roger
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Biology
Characterize how coral cells and their dinoflagellate algal partners respond to bleaching-level stress, comparing cells in isolation with cells in symbiosis, to separate each partner's contribution to free-radical buildup.
Benjamin Glass
Boston University, MA·Ecology & Evolution
Profile temperature, oxygen and other abiotic conditions at a Bermuda coral reef to define realistic stress scenarios.
James Stoeckel
Auburn University, AL·Ecology & Evolution
Identify transcriptomic, lipidomic, metabolomic, mitochondrial and whole-animal metabolic signatures of how Lampsilis straminea and Fusconaia cerina adjust to water temperature and sediment at different life stages in lab acclimation.
The school
Tufts University: 19 labs on PI Pages, $278M a year on research, 144 research doctorates a year.
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