Research Interests
Broadly, my research focuses on the ecology of marine symbiotic organisms. This has included relationships such as mutualistic cleaning interactions and ectoparasitic interactions. Currently all my research has been focused on Caribbean symbiotic relationships with field locations in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Barbados, and Curaçao.
1. Sensory ecology of marine ectoparasites
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Ectoparasites are a unique sub-group of parasites that live outside the bodies of their host and therefore typically must actively traverse their ecosystems at some point throughout their lifecycles. This can include finding a host, settling in a specific habitat, locating a mate, and avoiding possible predators. Ectoparasites have evolved a plethora of different mechanisms to successfully achieve these goals. While terrestrial parasites have received a wealth of attention in this subject, marine parasites have not. There are few species that we know anything about when it comes to their sensory ecology and how they navigate their often complex lifecycles.
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I am primarily focused on the sensory ecology of the fish-parasitic gnathiid isopod. Gnathiid isopods are one of the most common marine ectoparasites that can be found circumglobally, from the shallows to depths of over 3,000 m. In the Caribbean, gnathiids are generalist parasites that infect over 40 different species of fishes and invertebrates. However, they do infect hosts at varying levels with some getting 100s of gnathiids in a short period of time while others get few to none. For my Master's thesis, I showed that gnathiids do actively use chemical cues when locating their hosts but that does not explain any susceptibility differences we see in hosts (Vondriska et al., 2020). For my Ph.D. I plan to expand on this research to investigate all aspects of the gnathiid lifecycle and determine which cues (visual, chemical, environmental, etc.) are used throughout.
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2. Behavior of cleaning organisms on Caribbean coral reefs
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Cleaner organisms are essential on coral reefs. These cleaners (typically shrimps, gobies, or wrasses) have a mutualistic relationship with reef fish where they will consume parasites and dead tissues on the fishes body. This provides the cleaners with a steady diet while improve the 'clients' overall fitness. My research in this subject has previously focused on the Pederson's cleaner shrimp, spotted cleaner shrimp, and neon cleaner gobies. Using remotely deployed underwater cameras my collaborators at the American Natural History Museum and Operation Wallacea (UK) and I have been able to explore various aspects of cleaner behavior and ecology, including the evolution of cheating behaviors (Titus et al., 2019), possible mimicry in cleaner species (Titus et al., 2017), and ecological differences in cleaning interactions between nearby reefs (Romain et al., 2020).
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