Dam's Planktonomics Lab

09/18/2026

Fitting that copepods (check the T-shirt) rule the realm.

05/18/2026

The Dam lab well represented at the ASLO-SIL conference in Montreal, with talks on the response of copepods to heatwaves, copepod critical thermal limits, and shifts in the copepod microbiome in response to warming and acidification. Pictured with Dam are Victoria Glynn (left, visiting postdoc) and Rowan Batts (Ph.D. student).

04/12/2026

The Dam lab students and visiting postdoc engaged the public at the Sip n Science event in Stonington, CT.

12/12/2025

Christmas lunch at the Dam’s lab. We were missing two undergrads. It’s 13 people in the lab now. Thankful to these incredibly folks. Plankton rule!

11/20/2025

Today it was my pleasure and honor to give a talk at the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, which has existed since 1799, on my favorite animals-copepods!

It was great to engage with an eclectic, intelligent, and highly curious crowd.

10/27/2025

New article from the Dam lab. We review adaptation costs in the Anthropocene. Kudos to former student and now colleague, Jimmy deMayo for leading this effort.

Get the preprint free here until Dec. 11, 2025

07/15/2025

New collaborative paper with Melissa Pespeni's lab (U Vermont). After evolving a copepod population for 25 generations under warming and acidification conditions, the results show a surprising picture of the complementary contributions of both genetic and epigenetic mechanisms to population resilience in global change conditions.

To persist under unprecedented rates of global change, populations can adapt or acclimate. However, how these resilience mechanisms interact, parti...

07/02/2025

Will digital twins be the new wave in plankton research, and can they help improve predictions of ecosystem responses to global change?

Check out this perspective article, of which we are coauthors. Thanks to Kevin Flynn for leading this big effort.

Plankton models have crucial applications in ecosystem management and climate change projections. This Perspective suggests that stronger alignment of plankton models with empirical knowledge is needed and recommends steps to close the gap between empirical research and modelling.

06/24/2025

New publication in the Dam lab. The ecology of fear is mediated by resource availability in toxic dinoflagellates. We show that dinoflagellates continue to produce induced toxins long after their predators are gone, and that this toxin production is mediated by the nutrient regime.

The non-consumptive effects of past predator exposure on phytoplankton have gained recognition, but how these effects are modulated by resource availability requires further study. We examined the simultaneous effects of past predator exposure (direct, indirect, and no exposure) and nutrient regime....

06/10/2025

Founding the Feng Graduate Research Colloquium at the University of Connecticut is one of my most cherished activities. The Colloquium has now run for almost 30 years!

Most of the participants of the 15th biennial Feng Colloquium at DMS on 15 May 2025By Samantha Rush. On May 15, 2025, the Department of Marine Sciences host ...