Research Interests
I am interested in how ecological,
behavioral, and environmental features shape evolution
and genetic systems in diverse organisms. Most of
my work in marine and estuarine settings has asked
questions about how life-history, physiological, or
behavioral attributes of species affect population
structure. Often the results directly address questions
about coastal and marine conservation related to our
ability to detect and predict anthropogenic effects
on natural populations. In addition, I have a particular
interest in the ecology and evolution of recognition
systems and have been investigating this both in colonial
invertebrates and estuarine fishes.
Current
projects include: immunogenetic (Major Histocompatibility
Complex) variation in large populations, the use of
genetic markers to detect anthropogenic effects on
natural fish populations, parasite surveys of fish
from estuarine habitats of varying quality, evolved
resistance to contaminants in estuarine populations,
genetic tools for estimating population linkage in
marine species including urchins, lobsters, fish,
and tunicates, and phylogenetic relationships between
various marine taxa at the family level (e.g., fish
and tunicates). Other projects have included oxygen
diffusion in egg masses of snails and worms and implications
for egg mass design, mating systems and inbreeding
depression in tunicates, intertidal biodiversity surveys
and methods, and behavioral variation in colonial
marine invertebrates. I use research methods ranging
from the high to very low tech, indoor to outdoor,
and dry to wet. |
Selected Papers (* indicates a graduate student
author)
Eberl, R.*, S. Cohen,
F. Cipriano, and E. Carpenter. 2007. Genetic diversity
and population structure of the pelagic harpacticoid
copepod Macrosetella gracilis on rafts of
the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Trichodesmium
spp. Aquatic Biology 1: 33-43.
Burnett, K., and 25 authors including S. Cohen.
2007. Fundulus as the premier teleost model
in environmental biology: opportunities for new insights
using genomics. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology,
Part D 2, 257-286.
Cohen,
S., J. Tirindelli*, M. Gomez-Chiarri, D.
Nacci. 2006. Functional implications of Major Histocompatibility
(MH) variation using estuarine fish populations. Integrative
and Comparative Biology 46 (6): 1016-1029.
Cohen, S. 2002. MHC variation in natural
populations of an estuarine fish: high levels of variation
and relationship to severe environmental stress. Molecular
Biology and Evolution 19 (11): 1870-1880. http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/11/1870
Cohen, S. and D. Nacci. 2002. Effects
of dioxin-like compound (DLC) contamination on an
estuarine fish species: adaptive changes at specific
loci. Conference proceedings, US/Vietnam Scientific
Conference on Agent Orange/Dioxins, March 3-6, 2002,
Hanoi, Vietnam.
Cohen, S. 2000. Botryllid ascidian
invasions: genetic and behavioral evidence for multi-species
invasions and character divergence following introductions.
In, Proceedings of the First National Conference on
Marine Bioinvasions, MIT Sea Grant.
Cohen, S., Saito, Y. and I. Weissman.
1998. Evolution of allorecognition in botryllid ascidians
inferred from a molecular phylogeny. Evolution 52(3):746-756.
Cohen, S. 1996. The effects of contrasting
modes of fertilization on levels of inbreeding in
the marine invertebrate genus Corella. Evolution
50(5): 1896-1907.
Cohen, C. S. and R. Strathmann. 1996.
Embryos at the edge of tolerance: effects of environment
and structure of egg masses on supply of oxygen to
embryos. Biol. Bull. 190: 8-15. http://www.biolbull.org/cgi/reprint/190/1/8.pdf
Dethier,
M., Graham, E., Cohen, S., and L.
Tear. 1993. Visual and random-point percent cover
estimations: "Objective is not always better."
Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 96: 93-100.
Petersen,
C., Warner, R., Cohen, S., Hess,
H. and A. Sewell. 1992. Variation in pelagic fertilization
rates: Implications for production estimates,
mate choice, and the spatial distribution of
mating. Ecology 73: 391-401.
Cohen,
S. 1990. Outcrossing in field populations of two species
of self-fertile ascidians. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol.
140: 147-158.
Hess, H., Bingham, B., Cohen, S.,
Grosberg, R., Jefferson, W. and L. Walters. 1988.
The scale of genetic differentiation in Leptosynapta
clarki (Heding), an infaunal brooding holothuroid.
J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 122: 187-194.
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