Growing environmental stresses such as ocean warming have led to a rise in coral bleaching events. Where reef-building corals lose their symbiotic algae that usually supply most of their energy. Bleaching events have led to widespread coral starvation and death, damaging the structure of coral reefs. This study aims to identify if the sex of a coral colony will impact the colony’s ability to withstand growing environmental stresses. Although most coral species are hermaphroditic, we worked to gain insight into the responses of gonochoric corals (in which individuals are either male or female). We focused on a major reef-building species, Porites compressa, from Hawai'i, to better understand how reproductive development compares to bleaching events, and colonies’ ability to recover from bleaching. We hypothesized that female colonies would be better equipped to withstand environmental stress due to excess nutrients stored in their eggs, which can be re-absorbed during stress. While males grow faster at the cost of investing less nutrients in sperm leaving them vulnerable to heating events. Coral polyps from male and female colonies were collected at different points between 2021 and 2023. Using the polyps, I determined each colony’s sex and the developmental stage of each egg or spermary. With this data the varying developmental stages were compared, to present the expected differences between male and female gamete development. I also measured each colony’s annual growth through skeletal growth rings preserved in frozen colony fragments. We analyzed this data to determine if females grow more slowly to better survive bleaching due to earlier annual investment in nutrient-rich eggs, to keep available during bleaching events. Through this study, a better understanding of coral development and success based on the reef’s sex will allow greater predictions to be made in future research as ocean warming increases.
 

As the Anthropocene progresses, environmental stressors are becoming more noticeable in their impacts on aquatic ecosystems and the organisms that inhabit them. One such organism of environmental and ecological importance is the Pacific oyster, C. gigas. Under climate change, molluscan shells are likely to become weaker due to lowered calcium carbonate availability which may lead to increased mortalities. In Washington state, C. gigas provides 3200 jobs annually and lowers nitrogenous waste concentrations. Our focus in this work was to determine if temperature and pH would affect shell strength in C. gigas as climate change continues to affect their environment. We used C. gigas samples that grew in Puget Sound, Washington, over the summer months. Samples were tested for maximum load of pressure shells could withstand and correlating that to thickness to determine strength. We found that temperature and pH were not correlated to shell strength. We observed that the shell strength of C. gigas taken from Puget Sound did not depend on temperature or pH changes. Previous molluscan shell strength experiments in other settings and locations show contradictory results, but there is little evidence pertaining specifically to C. gigas. These experiments are typically conducted in laboratory settings as well, not in field settings like ours. Going forward, this concept should be reconsidered to confidently identify what the Anthropocene has in store for C. gigas.

This global change study examines the multiple-stressor impacts of heat and plastic leachates on a symbiotic clonal cnidarian, the aggregating anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima. Marine heatwaves and ocean plastics are two forms of anthropogenic pollution that are increasing and predicted to rise in future ocean conditions. In Puget Sound, intertidal marine organisms are most at risk of exposure to these combined stressors. In summer, low tides at noon leave intertidal organisms in stagnant warming water or fully exposed to desiccation. Marine heatwaves, like the one that occurred in June 2021, caused water temperatures to spike along Puget Sound coasts. Concurrently, road run-off and sewage likely expose intertidal organisms to higher concentrations of plastic leachates. Leachates are derived from machine-washed polyester clothing microplastics, polyvinyl chloride sewage pipes, and non-source point pollution that is swept through watersheds toward the coasts. Plastic pollution in the form of leachates is understudied in coastal ecosystems, compared to thermal stress. Plastic-derived leachates are the complex cocktail of chemicals that leach from plastics into the environment and are considered pollutants of emerging concern. We do not fully understand the impacts they have on the physiology of marine organisms, and even fewer studies address their impacts in the context of marine heatwaves. We will test physiological and photophysiological responses of aggregating anemones to thermal stress and plastic leachates, separately and combined. We will develop respirometry and light response curves for each of the treatment conditions and a control. We hypothesize that the cnidarian host will show increased metabolic activity indicating stress under both types of pollution, and that photosynthetic efficiency in the algal symbiont will increase with leachate exposure. We hope to use the results of this study to better understand how anemones and other cnidarians like corals are affected by the threats of plastic pollution and global warming.

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction (66.052 Ma) is one of the most important events in mammalian evolution as it was the catalyst for mammals to diversify and fill the ecological holes left by the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. This extinction event impacted all groups of mammals, including the multituberculates, one of the longest-lived and most successful clades of Mesozoic and early Cenozoic mammals. The Constenius vertebrate fossil locality is in the lowermost Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation in Garfield County, northeastern Montana, deposited within the first 28,000 years after the K-Pg mass extinction (66.052-66.028 Ma). Constenius is a very rich but understudied fossil locality that provides a snapshot of the immediate aftermath of the mass extinction. In this study, we used qualitative descriptions partnered with linear measurements to identify 44 lower fourth premolars (p4s) to the lowest possible multituberculate taxon. We recognize three genera of multituberculates from Constenius: Cimexomys, Mesodma, and Stygimys. The presence of these multituberculates supports the previous assignment of Constenius to the Pu1 interval zone of the Puercan North American Land Mammal Age (early Paleocene, 66.052-65.820 Ma). Further work on this project will include expanding the dataset to include other multituberculate dental specimens, such as upper premolars, and conducting a geometric morphometric analysis with the lower fourth premolar specimens to further confirm taxonomic identifications.

During the period following the First World War, the Weimar Government arose just as the emancipation of German women began. “The New Woman,” as she was termed, demonstrated liberation and modernity: she voted, worked for a wage, was fashionable, and had fewer children. Dada artist Hannah Höch produced a myriad of works that celebrated the New Woman, especially as she worked in an artist group dominated by men. However, in her collage, Da-Dandy (1919), Höch seemingly critiques this concept, specifically narrowing in on the bourgeois co-option of women’s newfound freedom. Da-Dandy was decidedly not working class; instead, she sported pearl necklaces, high heels, bob haircuts, and fancy dresses, all while being spared from class politics and struggles. In many ways, Da-Dandy is the demonstration and continuation of bourgeois power. This paper first addresses how upper-class women claimed movements and concepts not necessarily meant for them, particularly “The New Woman.” Höch, while known for her critique of the male gaze, focuses on a ‘female gaze’ through a class-derived analysis of the female form in Da-Dandy. Therefore, the paper articulates how her fragmented, deformed, and collaged image centers on the appropriation of the New Woman by the bourgeoisie milieu to call out a new form of fetishization of women.

In 1937, the small Spanish town, Guernica, was bombed by a German air unit during the Spanish Civil War. The bombing gained little notoriety until artist Pablo Picasso created Guernica–a painting that vividly captured the horror and devastation of the incident. The work is composed of a multitude of symbols; however, Picasso never offered a designated meaning, leaving viewers with years of speculation. Therefore, in order to situate the importance of the painting to the Spanish audience, as well as to later contemporary audiences, the paper analyzes the various signs and symbols peppered in the work to navigate the artistic, social, and political circumstances under which Guernica was painted. The socio-political climate of Spain during the time and the fractured alliances and conflicts that provoked the Civil War played a pertinent role. The paper considers how the painting acts as part of the archive, serving as both a historical record and an initiator of political discourse to confront the devastation of war. Such a methodology nuances the motives and views at the time. For example, reoccurring motifs, such as the bull and the horse, take on new resonance in the image, just as other fractured symbols in the work, such as the sun and the broken sword, provide further contextualization and would go on to impact the larger reception of the violent image.