Short Bio: Chris Sullivan is a 2nd year master’s student in Dr. Sandin’s lab. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology (Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution) and also in Economics from UCSD. Growing up locally in North County San Diego, Chris became very familiar with southern California’s coast and the life within its coastal waters. He first became interested in studying marine biology when he visited San Diego’s Sea Camp in the eighth grade. From that point on Chris became fascinated with the study of life in the ocean. He continued on with a marine biology course in high school and eventually gained a minor in Marine Science from UCSD. It was from this program at UCSD that Chris became involved with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was during his time as a UCSD undergraduate that he volunteered on a CalCOFI cruise and worked in two different labs at SIO. He spent time processing phytoplankton samples in Dr. Ralf Goericke’s lab and measuring CO2 in seawater in Dr. Andrew Dickson’s lab. It was during his field work intensive semester of Marine Biology in Australia that he realized he wanted to study fish ecology. While at the University of Queensland he performed two independent research projects. These projects made him realize that he wanted to continue with research in the future and decided to continue his studies through the research intensive BS/MS program through UCSD Biology. It was during his next quarter at UCSD that he enrolled in Dr. Sandin’s Biostatistics class. After learning of Dr. Sandin’s work and subsequently meeting with him and other members of his lab, Chris realized this was research that he wanted to be involved in and a lab group he wanted to be part of.
Research Interests: The goal of my research is to investigate non-lethal effects of predators on growth rates and allometric relationships. For my research I am using mimic predators to create a visual stimulus that ultimately results in a higher than normal level of stress. I hypothesize that growth will be affected by different levels of predator presence and will explore this question through cortisol assays and the measurement of growth parameters. Each experiment will only be for one generation and span one month. This experiment will also explore how labile fishes’ growth can be. This experiment will be reproduced multiple times with numerous species. I am currently working with local species but plan to also use tropical species.
Online: Artificial Predators