Ecological interactions within freshwater communities are the primary foci of my lab group, the Plankton Ecology and Limnology Laboratory (PEL Lab). Our studies have covered a broad range of aquatic organisms, from bacteria to fish, with emphases on lake and reservoir ecosystems. We are particularly interested in understanding how consumers affect community and ecosystem level dynamics through direct and indirect effects on and by planktonic microbes via mechanisms such as selective consumption, alteration of competitive forces, and changes in nutrient cycling dynamics, as well as numerous mechanisms relating to taxonomic and functional dimensionality of planktonic communities.
Laboratory and field experimentation play key roles in PEL Lab research, as do genomics, transcriptomics, and phylogenomics, and we typically employ multiple but separate approaches to both basic and applied questions. Graduate and undergraduate students working in the PEL lab are free to explore any topic in aquatic ecology and evolutionary biology.
Current research in the PEL Lab includes genome-guided elucidation of the genetic basis for toxin production and delivery and subsequent uptake and transport of prey cell constituents across the cell membrane by the harmful algal bloom (HAB) species Prymnesium parvum; genome evolution and ecophysiology within the cyanobacterial genus Microcystis, analysis of global patterns in taxonomic and functional diversity within cyanobacterial bloom microbiomes; analysis of Microcystis toxin diversity and trophic transfer of microcystins within food webs; use of remote sensing technologies for quantification of water quality in regional lakes, particularly as related to HABs; and elucidation of spatial and temporal dynamics of HAB-microbiome interactions in southwestern reservoirs, particularly relating to cyanotoxin production, release, and degradation.
Cai, H., C.J. McLimans, J.E. Beyer, L.R. Krumholz, and K.D. Hambright. 2023. Microcystis pangenome reveals cryptic diversity within and across morphospecies. Science Advances. (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add3783).
Cook, K.V., C. Li, H. Cai, L. Krumholz, K.D. Hambright, H.W. Paerl, M.M. Steffen, A.E. Wilson, M.A. Burford, H.-P. Grossart, D.P. Hamilton, H. Jiang, A. Sukenik, D. Latour, E.I. Meyer, J. Padisák, B. Qin, R.M. Zamor, and G. Zhu. 2020. The global Microcystis interactome. Limnology & Oceanography 65: S194–S207. (DOI:10.1002/lno.11361).
Beyer, J.E. and K.D. Hambright. 2017. Maternal effects are no match for stressful conditions: a test of the maternal match hypothesis in a common zooplankter. Functional Ecology. 31:1933-1940. (DOI:10.1111/1365-2435.12901).
Acosta, F., R.M. Zamor, F.Z. Najar, B.A. Roe, and K.D. Hambright. 2015. Dynamics of an experimental microbial invasion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112: 11594-11599. (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1505204112).
Remmel, E.J. and K.D. Hambright. 2012. Toxin-assisted micropredation: Experimental evidence shows that contact micropredation rather than exotoxicity is the role of Prymnesium toxins. Ecology Letters 15: 126-132.(DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01718.x)
