DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Dissection of A "Model" Organism: Understanding the Morphological and Genetic Diversity of A Symbiotic Sea Anemone

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Sea anemones are ubiquitous members of marine ecosystems. Their ecological success has been attributed to their resilience and plasticity, as well as associations they achieve with other marine organisms. Despite this, sea anemones traditional classification has been neglected. As a consequence, understanding their morphological diversity and distribution remains very limited. In order to gain knowledge in those respects, the proposed research will study a highly abundant group of sea anemones with a worldwide distribution. More than 1000 individuals will be collected covering the distribution of 16 currently described species worldwide. A revision of the group will be accomplished using morphological and molecular approaches.The combination of the field and descriptive components of this project will provide material to create excellent educational opportunities. Specifically, lectures will be developed for the curriculum of the NSF funded High School Science Research and Mentoring Program (SRMP), which exposes urban students from underrepresented groups to scientific research. A broader audience will be reached by developing educational materials that will be available in the public galleries of the AMNH and its Explorer web site. Furthermore, the educational materials will be available in Spanish for ESL learning and classroom activities.