Will H. Ryan, PhD

Evolutionary Ecology of Marine Invertebrates

      I am motivated by the complex and diverse life history strategies that marine invertebrates employ in pursuit of life's two great purposes: eating food and making babies. 

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      I am particularly fascinated with how long-lived, clonal organisms can use a single genotype to resolve tradeoffs faced through different stages of life and often, across many different environments.

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      My work centers on understanding how selection acting on the individual clones of a genotype feeds back on the genetically programmed "rules" that  govern investment in growth, fission, and sex. 

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Read more about my current projects:

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• Variation in the temperature dependence of fission across the latitudinal range of the sea anemone, Diadumene lineata

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• Seasonal and size dependent patterns of gametogenesis in Diadumene lineata

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• Comparing the spatial scales of genetic population structure of Diadumene lineata across the latitudinal species range along the invaded Atlantic coast of the US

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• Comparing latitudinal patterns in life history strategy between the native (Japan) and exotic (US) coastlines

Will in his natural habitat: 

the  rocky intertidal.