Changes in temperature, salinity, light, and food supply, to name just a few, can cause changes in how a plant or animal feeds, reproduces, or even cause its death. Physiological effects on the individual can potentially translate into changes in populations and entire communities. We are investigating how marine organisms cope at a molecular, cellular, and whole organism level to environmental stress. Information on how organisms respond physiologically to their environment will help us understand how organisms will respond to environmental change, including global climatic change. By using this technique, researchers have shown that intertidal mussels will respond very quickly at the cellular level to an increase in their food supply caused by a phytoplankton bloom.
Damaged proteins cause harm by sticking to healthy proteins and interfering with their function.
By measuring the amount of HSP within the cells of organisms, investigators hope to reveal patterns of how much environmental stress organisms experience and how they are using cellular mechanisms to cope with stress. Many questions remain about how production of HSPs varies between individuals, local conditions, and sites. Plants require many nutrients to grow, reproduce, and survive. Often the growth of plants is limited by the amount of certain nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous. Past research indicates that intertidal seaweeds can be nutrient limited.