Matthew Sasaki

EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGIST & OCEANOGRAPHER

     

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I am an evolutionary ecologist and biological oceanographer studying the interactions between organisms and their thermal environment. I am particularly interested in how acclimation and adaptation will affect population responses to climate change. This work relies on an integrative approach, combining field observations and laboratory experiments, and draws from physiological, ecological, and population genomic approaches. As an NSF Ocean Sciences postdoc fellow, I’m working with Dr. Melissa Pespeni at the University of Vermont to examine the underlying genomic bases of spatiotemporal patterns in thermal adaptation in a widespread marine copepod. Previously, I worked with Dr. Hans Dam at the University of Connecticut on a range of projects examining how genetic differentiation and phenotypic plasticity contribute to patterns in the thermal limits of marine copepods, and the interactions between thermal adaptation and the trophic ecology of omnivorous copepods.