Gretchen Hofmann

Biography

I am a marine biologist whose research focuses on responses of marine species to future ocean change such as ocean acidification and ocean warming. Together with my lab group we are trying to understand whether and how marine species can adapt to environmental change in the ocean. We are especially interested in understanding how ecologically and economically important marine species will respond to stressors associated climate change. Research in our group is multidisciplinary, including a suite of methods used in oceanography, ecophysiology and molecular biology.

Research

Work in the Hofmann Lab group focuses on the ecological physiology of marine organisms, in particular kelp, invertebrates and perciform fishes. Although the research projects in the lab are quite diverse, we are collectively interested in understanding the role of temperature and oceanographic features in setting species' distribution patterns in the marine environment.

Currently, there are five main research projects in the Hofmann Lab

• Macrophysology in the marine environment: Are species more physiologically stressed at the extremes of their biogeographic range?
• Environmental genomics: Using DNA microarrays to map patterns of gene expression onto species range in the marine environment
• Gene expression profiling & cold adaptation: Comparisons of gene expression in Antarctic and New Zealand notothenioid fishes
• Larval physiology: Examining thermotolerance of marine invertebrate larvae from a biogeographical perspective
• Temperature stress physiology of corals (http://mcr.lternet.edu/)