Research in the Plough lab focuses on the biology and genetics of marine animals, particularly marine fish, oysters, and other marine invertebrates. We are fundamentally interested in the processes (demographic, ecological) that structure marine populations and how species mitigate or adapt to stress and environmental change. We are also interested in using genetic data to guide conservation and restoration programs for species of interest in the Chesapeake Bay.
Check out our research page for more information on current projects.
Contact me: lplough@umces.edu
Lab News
Katie joins our lab from Ithaca NY, where she recently finished a postdoc in Matt Hare’s Lab at Cornell U. examining the performance of restored oysters along a salinity gradient in the Hudson River estuary. Katie is bringing her field ecology and physiology skills to study larval feeding physiology, examining how recurrent selection under a […]
New project for the Plough and Pierson labs! Our proposal ‘Novel Genomic Tools to Assess Fish Diet and Prey Quality in the Choptank River’ was recently funded by MD SeaGrant along with a 2 year fellowship position! Very exciting. Plough lab part-time laboratory technician extraordinare Catherine Fitzgerald will be joining the lab as a masters […]
The lab is growing – Alexandra McCarty is starting her masters degree here at UMCES and will be working on our recently funded USDA project to examine the genetic basis of low salinity tolerance in oysters. Alexandra (Lexy) got her bachelors degree in biology from St. Marys College Maryland, and has been working at the […]
The Plough lab is recruiting 1 or 2 new students (masters or PhD) and a new lab technician to start in the Spring/Summer of 2017. Students, please submit applications through the MEES/UMD website (http://mees.umd.edu/) and contact me, and technicians email lplough@umces.edu for inquiries (formal application site coming soon!).
Katie has been awarded a Maryland SeaGrant coastal resiliency fellowship to model the effects of hatchery enhancement on the genetic diversity of oysters. Congrats!
