Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI)
Grad Student Rohal Examines Tiny Organisms to Understand Deep-Sea Ecosystems
Meiofauna provide important ecosystem services such as waste removal to the deep sea-floor environment and can act as indicators of ecosystem health. Because meiofauna live a largely sedentary life due to their small size and sediment habitat, they are often unable to escape an area affected by unusual disturbances, such as the Deepwater Horizon incident.
Melissa Rohal is investigating how oiling affects deep-sea meiofauna and how quickly their populations can recover. Her research combines community structure and function studies with modeling and socioeconomics studies to answer the question, “Do meiofauna matter?”
Melissa is a Coastal and Marine System Science Ph.D. student with the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi and a GoMRI Scholar with the Center for the Integrated Modeling and Analysis of Gulf Ecosystems II (C-IMAGE II).
Photo Caption: Melissa identifies a copepod at the Copepod workshop in South Korea.
Photo provided by Melissa Rohal.
Read More: gulfresearchinitiative.org/grad-student-rohal-examines-ti...
Grad Student Rohal Examines Tiny Organisms to Understand Deep-Sea Ecosystems
Meiofauna provide important ecosystem services such as waste removal to the deep sea-floor environment and can act as indicators of ecosystem health. Because meiofauna live a largely sedentary life due to their small size and sediment habitat, they are often unable to escape an area affected by unusual disturbances, such as the Deepwater Horizon incident.
Melissa Rohal is investigating how oiling affects deep-sea meiofauna and how quickly their populations can recover. Her research combines community structure and function studies with modeling and socioeconomics studies to answer the question, “Do meiofauna matter?”
Melissa is a Coastal and Marine System Science Ph.D. student with the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi and a GoMRI Scholar with the Center for the Integrated Modeling and Analysis of Gulf Ecosystems II (C-IMAGE II).
Photo Caption: Melissa identifies a copepod at the Copepod workshop in South Korea.
Photo provided by Melissa Rohal.
Read More: gulfresearchinitiative.org/grad-student-rohal-examines-ti...