Follow our new series on research happening in the Department of Biology. Each story will broadly highlight a current study or papers that faculty members and graduate students have published as a result of their research findings. For deeper content, we’ll link to the journal or publication in which the research is featured.

Dr. Jim McClintock

"Ocean warming and acidification alter Antarctic macroalgal biochemical composition but not amphipod grazer feeding preferences"

Julie B. Schram, Kathryn M. Schoenrock, James B. McClintock, Charles D. Amsler, Robert A. Angus. Marine Ecology Progress Series 581, 2017.

Julie Schram is one of Dr. McClintock’s former doctoral students, and is now a postdoc at the University of Oregon. This is the seventh paper published from data she collected as part of her Ph.D. research in Antarctica. It examines the role of ocean warming and ocean acidification in the biochemical composition of two ecologically dominant species of Antarctic brown macroalgae, and the feeding preferences of a common amphipod crustacean grazer for these macroalgae. She reports that both warming and ocean acidification alter the biochemical composition of the algae, but that feeding assays with amphipods indicate feeding preferences are not altered despite this change in macroalgal nutritional quality. The capacity of macroalgae to retain their feeding deterrent properties is important in evaluating community resistance to macroalgae-mesograzer assemblages in a region of the world experiencing unprecedented climate change.

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Learn more about Dr. McClintock, our graduate students, and our research on the Department of Biology website.