Could
be the only way to survive
URI
Assistant Professor Hollie Putnam poses with one of her research experiments.
(Photo courtesy of Hollie Putnam)
The
newest professor in the University of Rhode Island’s College of the Environment
and Life Sciences, Hollie Putnam, thinks some corals and shellfish might have
good enough “memories” to buffer the changes in ocean chemistry that are
resulting from global climate change.
A
native of Minnesota who earned a doctorate at the University of Hawaii, Putnam
is studying how a wide variety of marine organisms are responding to changes in
their environment.
Focusing
on reef-building corals and other shelled creatures that are threatened by
increasing temperatures and ocean acidification, she is testing them to
determine how species may acclimatize to the new circumstances.
“I’m interested in how the environment is changing, how animals respond to those changes, and the potential for acclimatization to those conditions, particularly across generations and in different life stages,” said Putnam, assistant professor in the URI Department of Biological Sciences, who joined the faculty in January.
“I’m asking questions like, do offspring perform better
because of their parents’ history in certain conditions, and if so, what are
the mechanisms driving that.”
In
one study of corals, for instance, she exposed adults to increased temperature
and acidification, then exposed their offspring to the same conditions to see
if they are more successful because of their parents’ previous experience.
“Interestingly,
we found that there is potential for beneficial acclimatization because of
parental history,” she said. “There is a more positive metabolic response and
ecological response, greater survivorship and growth if their parents have been
preconditioned to future scenarios.”
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| Try eating a dozen Geoducks on the half shell. I DARE you! |
She is exposing them to increased acidification levels, returning them to ambient conditions, and then re-exposing them to higher acidification conditions to see if they have a “memory” of those conditions and are less sensitive to it.
To
understand the underlying mechanism for how this may occur, she is also
conducting epigenetic studies to determine where in the genome this
acclimatization effect takes place.
Putnam
grew up hunting, fishing and camping in northern Minnesota, and she said she
was always on a path to become a biologist.
She
didn’t consider studying coral reef systems, however, until learning about them
as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. Her first job after
graduating was at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she assessed the
effects of chemicals on amphibians.
She
said her position at URI is “a perfect match” because of the University’s
reputation for marine science and the presence of other faculty who also study
coral reefs and shellfish.
“And
we’re just a short jump away to the Caribbean, where some of my research will
take place,” Putnam added.
The
new professor is in the process of setting up her laboratory and developing the
courses she will teach next fall, including marine biology and marine
environmental physiology.
“I
like to have a hands-on component in the classes I teach and focus on critical
thinking,” said Putnam, who lives in Kingston. “It’s one thing to learn facts
in a classroom – you can develop book knowledge that way – but it’s more
difficult to apply that knowledge until you’re in direct contact with
situations that make that linkage for you.”
She
hopes to eventually develop an undergraduate course in coral reef studies that
will include travel to one of her field sites in the Caribbean. And she said
some of her graduate students will conduct studies with her at the Moorea Coral
Reef Long-term Ecological Research site in French Polynesia.