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Dr. Karla Heidelberg BA, Liberal Arts, Maryville College, TN, 1988 I started diving in 1988 and this is when I got my first exposure to the vast realm of life underwater. From these experiences, I was highly motivated to return to graduate school in the field of marine science. During graduate school and a subsequent position at the University of Maryland, I was fortunate to have a wide variety of teaching and research experiences at multiple marine environments around the Caribbean - Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, the Florida Keys, Belize, and elsewhere. These experiences have further increased my love and appreciation of the marine environment. My primary research interests are on the growth and feeding of cnidarian predators (anemones, jellyfish and corals) and the behavior of their zooplankton prey. Zooplankton (like small "aquatic insects") are an important, diverse group of organisms that are the link between the primary producers and higher trophic levels, such as corals and fish. Interestingly, the zooplankton contents in coral and other predator guts rarely match the proportions available in the water. It was this discrepancy that led me to conduct research on zooplankton prey behavior. Did the corals reject prey? Was the coral unable to capture certain prey types because of their size? Was the behavior of the prey what determined which types are caught? My interest in zooplankton behavior resulted in a chance conversation with Roy Caldwell and the subsequent invitation to become part of this mission. During this collaboratory research, we will evaluate the abundance and behavior of stomatopods. Plus, we will utilize new molecular techniques (with John Heidelberg at The Institute for Genomic Research) to link unidentified larval forms to the adult forms. This will be my fifth Aquarius mission. I was the Lead Scientist inside Aquarius last year (July 2000 Mission) as part of my long-term studies with corals and zooplankton. |
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