Dr. Natasha Sharp recently joined the Burnett Lab as a postdoctoral researcher and will be further investigating the effects of low dissolved oxygen (hypoxia) and elevated carbon dioxide (hypercapnic hypoxia) on the immune defense of shrimp and blue crab. These animals frequently experience these conditions in the shallow coastal waters they inhabit. Originally from New Zealand, she moved to the USA to complete her doctorate under the guidance of Marius Brouwer at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi.  Her dissertation assessed the effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) hemocytes.  Her research focused on the changes in hemocyte number as well as cytological effects and differential gene expression.

In December 2008, the DiTullio lab members participated in a scientific research cruise aboard the R/V Roger Revelle, Scripp’s research vessel.  They joined scientists from around the world in a collaborative effort to study a phytoplankton bloom that occurs every spring off the Southern coast of Argentina.  The goal of the research cruise was to examine the effects of elevated carbon-dioxide levels on the growth of a particular group of phytoplankton called Coccolithophores. These organisms help fight global warming by turning carbon dioxide into protective shells called coccoliths.  These armored plates are shed by the algae and sink to the sea floor thus, sequestering the carbon.  As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, the ocean act as a natural carbon dioxide sponge; increasing oceanic carbon dioxide levels result in a lower oceanic pH or acidification.  One of the experiments examined how this change in ocean’s pH levels might adversely affect Coccolithophores and their ability to sequester carbon in their coccoliths.  The cruise lasted thirty days and provided the researchers with a lot of interesting data and samples that are currently being processed in the lab.