Vondriska Lab

Chemical ecology of small marine invertebrates

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All marine organisms rely on chemical signals at some point in their life. These chemical signals are typically associated with different fitness-related behaviors, such as food-finding, habitat location, conspecific-finding, or predator avoidance. Historically, research into this field has primarily focused on either larger, "charasmatic" organisms or those that have an obvious and direct effect on humans. This has left an entire group of "cryptofauna" severely understudied. This persists even though smaller organisms (primarily invertebrates) comprise a significant portion of biodiversity and biomass and have been shown to have significant influence in their ecosystems. 

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Much of our previous work has focused on the development and implementation of an aquatic olfactometer specifically made for the study of small aquatic organisms (Vondriska et al 2023). This olfactometer is adapted from those traditionally on terrestrial invertebrates and improves on historically used tools used to study aquatic organisms, which have many limitations when studying small animals. These introductory studies included looking at the behaviors of settling coral larvae and parasitic gnathiid isopods. ​In the future, we aim to expand the types of invertebrates that are tested in the olfactometer, including never-before-studied organisms to determine their responses to chemical signals and previously studied organisms to confirm the conclusions made using previous instruments are valid. ​

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Relative Publications: 

-Vondriska et al 2020. Differentially susceptible host fishes exhibit similar chemo-attractiveness to a common coral reef ectoparasite.

-Vondriska & Sikkel 2024. Assessment of a new olfactometer for study of sensory ecology in small aquatic organisms.

-Franks et al 2025. Observation and simulation of chemically mediated searches in marine zooplankton.

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