Dominique Gordon, M.S. 2013

Dominique studied the environmental factors controlling the only known case of seasonal polyphenism in larval development modes among marine invertebrates, the expression of alternative larval morphs in Alderia willowi.  This sea slug is the only marine animal in which an individual can switch between planktotrophy (production of many feeding larvae) and lecithotrophy (few, non-feeding larvae). This shift occurs seasonally in the field.  Most slugs produce non-feeding larvae in summer and fall, when southern Californian estuaries were historically closed by sand.  Populations produce dispersive planktotrophic larvae in winter and spring when freshwater runoff opens the mouths of estuaries and permits larval transport along the coast.  Dominique did rearing studies that showed temperature and salinity interactively determine what larval type an individual expresses.  Slugs reared in the lab under high salinity and high temperature that simulated summer conditions expressed the highest proportion of lecithotrophy, whereas low salinity and/or temperature triggered the expression of planktotrophy.

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See Krug, Gordon and Romero 2012, Integrative & Comparative Biology

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Dominique won Best Student Talk at the 2009 Western Society of Malacologists meeting in Fullerton, CA, and also presented her work at meetings of the Southern California Academy of Sciences and Western Society of Naturalists.