My general research interests broadly encompass climate change and how it will affect the marine ecosystem and the organisms dwelling in it. More specifically, I am interested in how climate change will physiologically impact marine organisms. The ocean is a very important reserve as it provides a source of food, oxygen, and minerals, as well as playing a critical role in removing increasing carbon from the atmosphere. Understanding how the marine ecosystem will alter in the coming years is critical knowledge to acquire as climate change can eventually impact the marine resources on which humans rely. My goal for the future is to incorporate scientific diving as a means for data collection to study this rapidly changing phenomenon.

For my thesis, I am developing tools to track the flow of carbon from primary producers to higher trophic levels to study the sources and cycling of organic matter through food webs. Primary producers are the main source of food for higher trophic predators. Therefore, studying the base of the food web can give an idea how the food chain is constructed and give an insight into how it could be affected by the current changing climate. I will be using compound specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) to develop a library of chemical isotopic fingerprints from the amino acids in cultured phytoplankton. Using these isotopic tracers, we will potentially be able to identify the primary producers fueling the food web.

In the past, I have worked with iodine/calcium ratios in calcium carbonate shells of marine microfossils, or foraminifera, to recreate estimated oxygen levels dating back 120,000 years. Measuring the oxygen levels of a warmer past could possibly give us an idea of what to expect in the warming future. In addition, I have had the opportunity to work for organizations including Save the Bay and the New England Aquarium, both who are interested in combating the effects of climate change. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, scuba diving, and sailing.

Education:

B.S. Marine Biology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, 2018

M.S. Biological Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, Projected in 2020

Contact Information:

Angela Stahl

M.S. Candidate

Oceanography Department

Graduate School of Oceanography

University of Rhode Island

Narragansett, RI 02882

E-mail: angela_foostahl@uri.edu