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Ecologists have come to recognize that microbes (e.g., bacteria, microalgae, fungi, and protozoa) and small invertebrates (“meiofauna”) contribute significantly to the remineralization and trophic transfer of carbon and other nutrients in marine and freshwater environments. An ongoing topic of investigation in my laboratory concerns the importance of microalgae as a food resource for small invertebrates. I am also interested in understanding the relationships between microbes that live on the surfaces of invertebrates (“epibionts”) and their invertebrate hosts.
Another major area of interest concerns the manner in which human activities influence natural communities. An ongoing area of interest concerns the interactive effects of petroleum-hydrocarbon and metal contaminants on the meiofaunal-microbial food web of coastal salt marshes. More recently we have begun investigations of the potential influence of elevated CO2 concentrations on deep-sea meiofaunal invertebrates. This research is relevant to strategies that are being considered by the U.S. Department of Energy for reducing the concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Further details about these projects, and other information about my lab can be found on my personal web page (see link below).
Maddi, P., Carman, K.R., Fry, B., and B. Wissel. (in press). Use of primary production by harpacticoid copepods in a Louisiana salt-marsh food web. In: Functioning of microphytobenthos in estuarine environments. Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Thistle, D., Carman, K.R., Sedlacek, L., Brewer, P.G., Fleeger, J.W., and Barry, J.P. 2005. Deep-ocean, sediment-dwelling animals are sensitive to sequestered carbon dioxide. Marine Ecology Progress Series 289: 1-4.
Carman, K.R., Thistle, D., Fleeger, J.W., Barry, J.P. 2004. The Influence of Introduced CO2 on Deep-Sea Metazoan Meiofauna. Journal of Oceanography 60: 767-772.
Fleeger, J.W., Carman, K.R., and R.M. Nisbet. 2003. Indirect effects of contaminants in aquatic ecosystems. Science of the Total Environment 317: 207-233.
Carman, K.R. and B. Fry. 2002. δ13C and δ15N analysis of meiofaunal species from a coastal marsh. Marine Ecology Progress Series 240: 85-92.
Buffan-Dubau, E. and K.R. Carman. 2000. Diel feeding behavior of meiofauna
and their relationships with microalgal resources. Limnology & Oceanography
45: 381-395.
Staff
Soraya Silva, graduate student, ssilva1@lsu.edu
Sarahfaye Mahon, graduate student, smahon3@lsu.edu
Tonya Marshall, technician, tmarsh1@lsu.edu