Julie Schram, Ph.D.

I am an integrative biologist with an interest in how environmental factors influence organismal physiology and trophic ecology. I am currently working on projects that utilize biomarkers such as fatty acids and stable isotopes to investigate interactions between primary producers and consumers. My research has focused on the effects of ocean acidification, the reduction in seawater pH due to the increased absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide, on benthic invertebrates, from tropical and temperate to polar systems.

One of my primary areas of interest is focused on the effects of ocean acidification on benthic communities and as such have worked on research projects investigating the effects of the combined stressors of ocean acidification, seawater warming, and diet quality on a suite of Antarctic invertebrates and benthic community ecological interactions within invertebrate-macroalgal assemblages. As part of these studies, I have become interested in observing and documenting the natural variations currently experienced by marine organisms.