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Brian Hopkinson
Assosciate Professor 250 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 Office Phone: (706) 542-7880 Lab Phone: 706-542-2037 bmhopkin@uga.edu |
Through photosynthesis, energy and carbon enter the marine food web providing food for higher trophic levels (such as fish). We study the ecology and physiology of marine primary producers. Recent work has included studying the effects of climate change on marine phytoplankton and developing ways to map marine ecosystems.
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Current Lab Members
McKenzie Powers
Graduate Student 252 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 mckpwrs@uga.edu Phone: (706) 542-2037 |
I am studying how climate change effects metabolite fluxes between phytoplankton and marine bacteria. Roughly 25% of carbon fixed in the ocean is routed to marine bacteria, much of which is directly derived from marine phytoplankton. I am using metatranscriptomics and metabolite analysis to determine how fluxes of metabolites change with temperature and CO2 in both model and natural systems.
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Jacob Simon
Graduate Student 252 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 jacob.simon25@uga.edu |
I am studying the distribution of salt marsh plants in coastal Georgia making use of artificial intelligence and computer vision tools to more rapidly and comprehensively map plant distributions. These improved maps should provide insight into the ecological processes controlling plant distributions.
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Former Lab Members
Kaylie Plumb
Graduate Student 252 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 Kaylie.Plumb@uga.edu Phone: (706) 542-2037 |
I am studying the role of proteorhodopsin in marine diatoms, especially those from the Southern Ocean. Proteorhodopsin is a light driven proton pump that generates energy independently of the conventional photosynthetic system. Unlike the conventional photosynthetic system, proteorhodopsin does not require iron and seems to be important under iron limitation, which is commonly experienced by diatoms in the Southern Ocean.
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Chen Shen
Graduate Student 102 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 Phone: 706-542-2037 chenshen@uga.edu |
I am using genetic and physiological techniques to study CO2 concentrating mechanisms in marine diatoms and how they contribute to the differential response of diatoms to rising CO2.
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Anna Tansik
Graduate Student 102 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 Phone: 706-542-2037 atansik@uga.edu |
I am looking at the flux of inorganic carbon into diatoms and symbiotic dinoflagellates using mass spectroscopy in order to illustrate the effects of variable dissolved organic carbon levels on photosynthesis. Understanding this can shed light on the ecological changes that occur in ecosystems such as coral reefs as climate continues to change.
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Daniel Baker
Graduate Student (co-advised by Bill Fitt, Ecology) 102 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 Phone: 706-542-2037 daniel.baker7@uga.edu |
I am analyzing a long term (>20 years) time series of data on coral and zooxanthellae properites from reefs in the Florida Keys.
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Daniel Owen
Graduate Student 102 Marine Sciences Bldg Department of Marine Sciences University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-3636 Phone: 706-542-2037 dpo63634@uga.edu |
I am studying the productivity of different photosynthetic organisms on coral reefs including corals, gorgonians, and algae. The goal of the work is to estimate the productivity of these taxa at the reef scale by combining discrete measurements of primary production by these organisms with estimates of the their abundance on the reef from 3D photographic reconstructions of the reef.
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