Jonathan Puritz
University of Rhode Island, RI·Ecology & Evolution
Coastal waters are harsh and getting harsher. Within a single bay, oxygen can swing low overnight as organisms respire, water can turn acidic on the same daily cycle, and storms can dump freshwater that abruptly drops salinity.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Genetics
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
eastern oyster
Crassostrea virginica
seascape genomics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Determine how eastern oyster larvae respond to short-term combinations of low dissolved oxygen, coastal acidification and low salinity, using factorial laboratory exposures at early and late larval stages and tracking survival alongside genotype.
- Test whether prolonged exposure to day-night cycling of oxygen and acidity plus low-salinity pulses reduces juvenile oyster survival, and identify which genes are expressed under these conditions using exome capture sequencing.
- Map genetic variation in adult oyster populations across multiple sites in several urbanized estuaries to build a seascape genomic framework using markers that include loci flagged as under selection during early life.
- Test whether frequencies of neutral and stress-resistant genotypes in wild populations correlate with local oxygen, acidity and salinity conditions, disentangling selection from migration and genetic drift.
More about the research
Most marine animals must pass their larval stage in exactly these shallow waters, and for many species larvae are the only way populations mix and exchange genes. This project asks how those overlapping stresses — low oxygen (hypoxia), coastal acidification, and low salinity — shape which young animals survive, and therefore what genetic diversity remains in populations of the eastern oyster.
Why it matters
Oyster reefs filter water, buffer shorelines, and support fisheries and aquaculture, and they face worsening low-oxygen, acidic and low-salinity events as the climate changes and coastal populations grow. Knowing which genotypes survive these stresses, and where tolerant oysters already occur, could help hatcheries choose broodstock that produce hardier larvae and help managers target restoration to sites where populations can persist.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kathleen Lotterhos
Northeastern University, MA·Ecology & Evolution·Early-career
Quantify genetic variation in cold tolerance, overwintering survival and post-winter reproduction, and the reaction norms of these traits in summer and winter morphs, using Drosophila suzukii flies from Vermont and Kentucky.
Benjamin Glass
Boston University, MA·Ecology & Evolution
Profile temperature, oxygen and other abiotic conditions at a Bermuda coral reef to define realistic stress scenarios.
Hannes Baumann
University of Connecticut, CT·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether growth capacity in Chilean silversides increases with latitude and temperature (counter-gradient variation), by rearing offspring from four coastal sites at four common temperatures.
The school
University of Rhode Island: 9 labs on PI Pages, $137M a year on research, 93 research doctorates a year.
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