Home Page Adelaide Rhodes, Ph.D.

Adelaide Rhodes, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate

I have spent the past nine years developing practical culture systems for marine copepods to be used in the study of early larval fish development. The reliable laboratory culture of copepods has allowed me to test hypotheses on trophic uptake and bioconversion of lipids by marine organisms; fish growth and development; larval fish behavior; predator-prey interactions; etc. While I am mainly interested in fatty acids, my research interest in copepods has expanded to include ecological processes, invasive species, and functional genomic regulation of lipid storage. Copepods hold the key to the successful recruitment and/or aquaculture of many important commercial and ornamental species.

Education

2004 Ph.D. Zoology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
1992 M.S. Oceanography, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne,FL
1990 B.A. Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Dissertation Research

As a doctoral student, my research focused on elucidating the lipid and carotenoid bioconversion capabilities of marine harpacticoid copepods. I conducted basic experiments that varied the diets of the model organism Nitokra lacustris. I measured the differences in population growth rates, lipid content and lipid quality. I created a model that predicted population growth rates based on observation of individual life history parameters and validated the model with a series of large-scale (>100 L) culture experiments in a fish hatchery. In order to complete this work, I created novel methods for the growth and maintenance of harpacticoid copepods species. In fact, I still have the original culture of Nitokra lacustris, started in 1998, sitting on my kitchen counter.

Recent Accomplishments

In my postdoctoral research experience at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington, I designed and carried out fish feeding experiments on larval and juvenile coldwater marine species (rock sole, rockfish, Pacific cod, etc.). I used a variety of live and inert feeds to investigate the transfer of nutrients from zooplankton to ichthyoplankton utilizing several methods: HPLC, GC, and inert markers (ICP). At the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, I recently completed two projects on fish growth and nutrient utilization, which are being prepared for publication: 1.) protein replacement diets for lingcod Ophiodon elongatus utilizing Alaskan fisheries by-product and by-catch meals, and 2.) a rapid method to measure the relative uptake of live prey and inert feeds fed to larval finfish.

Recent Classes

Spring, 2008: BIO 490E (ECO 486B, University of Washington, Seattle

"The Future of Our Planet: Climate, Ecosystems, and Society." Co-instructors: Susan Bates (Atmospheric Sciences); Lisa Marin (Biology) - 2 credit seminar

Spring 2007: TESC 408, University of Washington, Tacoma (sole instructor)

"Marine Plankton" - 6 credit lecture/lab

Awards and Honors

2008 Future Faculty Fellows, University of Washington, Teaching Apprenticeship: "The Future of Our Planet: Climate, Ecosystems and Society"

2007 University of Washington Postdoctoral Research Symposium Speaker

2005 Plenary Speaker, World Association of Copepodologists Section on the Role of Copepods in Aquaculture, 9th ICOC

2003 U.S. Peace Corps Graduate Service Assistantship, North Carolina State University

2002 1st Place Student Poster Award, World Aquaculture Society

2001 Starr Fellowship, Bermuda Biological Station for Research

2000 University Alumni Fellowship, North Carolina State University

2000 Aylesworth Scholarship, Florida Sea Grant

1996 Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, National Sea Grant, NOAA

1992 Aylesworth Scholarship, Florida Sea Grant

1992 Citizen’s Environmental Appreciation Award, Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program

Genomics Research (2007-2008)

I have recently started to incorporate a functional and comparative genetic approach to my research on larval fish development and copepod biology. I feel that this approach can provide valuable information on basic physiological processes, such as digestive enzyme development in marine fish and lipid storage in marine copepods. Once these physiological processes have been characterized in the species of interest, I will be able to measure organismal responses to environmental stressors such as reduced prey availability, ocean acidification, the presence of endocrine disruptors and other forms of pollution. By monitoring the expression levels of select genes in laboratory cultures of copepods and/or fish larvae subjected to abiotic and biotic stresses such as toxic algal species and temperatures outside the optimum range we could predict the impacts to the food chain from these possible threats to ecosystem health.

For my next postdoctoral project, I will be using multiple approaches to characterize the genes involved in the triggering of diapause in an important copepod species at the base of the food chain in the Northern Pacific region, Neocalanus plumchrus. Some of the methods I will use include suppression subtraction hybridization, differential display, and Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) analysis. In collaboration with Dr. Steven Roberts in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at UW, I will generate cDNA libraries for Neocalanus copepods prior to, during, and following diapause. I hope to characterize several differentially expressed genes as well as a number of previously unidentified genes that could play important roles in the timing of diapause. This work will provide some insights into how food quality and oceanic temperature changes may impact the base of the Northern Pacific food chain that supports a variety of fish and marine mammal species.

Aquaculture (2006-2007)

In my second year as a postdoctoral researcher at UW, I returned to aquaculture. As a postdoc funded by the USDA ARS and University of Idaho by Dr. Ron Hardy, I assisted Dr. Michael Rust in the development of larval and juvenile fish feeds for two major projects being conducted at the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center Montlake facility in Seattle near the UW.

One project tested the efficacy of utilizing Alaskan fisheries by-product and by-catch meals as part of larval and juvenile fish diets. The second project analyzed the uptake of various prey items through the trophic food chain utilizing a variety of live feeds fed inert metal oxides and then fed to larval finfish. During my time at NOAA Fisheries, I also worked on constructing a functional hatchery scale copepod production system to produce millions of copepods per day for research and analysis of the transfer of nutrients. We are awaiting further funding to complete and field test this pilot system.

Ballast Water Research Team (2005-2006)

In my first year as a postdoctoral researcher at UW, I assisted the Ballast Water Research Team under the supervision of Russell Herwig and Jeff Cordell at the University of Washington.

My role in the team was to provide and maintain cultures of nearly forty species of freshwater and marine zooplankton, many of them started from field samples. These cultures were utilized in a range of tests designed to improve the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) process. The ETV process screens promising new technologies for the reduction of non-indigenous species introduction through ballast water exchange. After culturing and screening the microzooplankton species, we developed a short list of seven surrogate organisms that could potentially be used to represent the response of a much broader group of organisms.

We then developed and conducted ecotoxicological assays for microzooplankton using ten proposed ballast water treatment technologies (e.g. ozone, UV, several biocides). After screening, I collected the data from the hundreds of experiments conducted by our lab and our collaborators at Woods Hole, West Virginia University and Old Dominion and prepared a comprehensive database tool for comparing and analyzing the effectiveness of proposed treatments for ridding ballast tanks of bacteria, phytoplankton, protists and zooplankton. The database results were presented to representatives from the EPA, NOAA, and U.S. Coast Guard at a scientific panel meeting in 2007. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center will make this database tool available to researchers around the world as part of the National Ballast Information Clearing House (NBIC).

Other Collaborative Research Activities

Due to my expertise with culturing and maintaining phytoplankton and zooplankton cultures, I often help local colleagues develop and implement experiments involving zooplankton. For example, working with colleagues from the Department of Oceanography at UW, Dr. Anitra Ingalls and Dr. Carme Huguet, I will be assisting in a study of how copepod ingestion of Crenarchaeota may impact lipid biomarkers. Crenarchaeota lipid biomarkers are used to determine the change in surface water temperatures over time, and it is possible that the encapsulation of Crenarchaeota in calanoid faecal pellets may alter the lipid biomarkers. This experiment will involve field sampling of zooplankton that reside in the water column alongside the Crenarchaeota as well as laboratory experiments to measure the key lipid biomarkers in copepod faecal pellets.

In another interesting experimental system, I will be using radiolabeled liposomes to measure the omega-3 bioconversion capability of freshwater and marine zooplankton. I am collaborating with Dr. Michael Brett in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the UW on this project, and we are awaiting notification of funding to continue the work. If successful, we will be able to trace the bioconversion of 18:3n3 to the essential fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) by lower trophic levels food in freshwater and marine systems. For the freshwater system, we will track lipid bioaccumulation and/or bioconversion by the calanoid copepod Diaptomus ashlandi fed to a freshwater model fish species Tilapia nilotica. In the marine system, we hope to replicate the experiment using Acartia tsuensis, a local calanoid, fed to larval rockfish (Sebastes sp.).

In a third collaboration, I worked with microbiologists at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (Dr. Mark Strom's lab) to develop an experimental system to test the potential for Vibrio parahaemolyticus transmission by zooplankton to shellfish harvesting areas around the Puget Sound. This bacterial pathogen that causes gastroenteritis may be hitchhiking on closely associated marine copepods, similar to the association established for Vibrio cholerae. My role in the research was to help establish an axenic copepod culture of a local species for laboratory experiments on Vibrio attachment.

Selected Publications

Rhodes, A. 2007. Dietary effects on carotenoid composition in the marine harpacticoid copepod Nitokra lacustris. Journal of Plankton Research 29(Supplement 1):i73-i83.

Rhodes, A. and L. Boyd. 2005. Formulated feeds for harpacticoid copepods: Implications for population growth and fatty acid composition. In: C.S. Lee, P. J. O'Bryen and N. H. Marcus (Eds.) Copepods in Aquaculture, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK, pp. 61-73.

ISBN 0-8138-0066-8

Rhodes, A. 2003. Methods for mass culture of Nitokra lacustris, a marine harpacticoid copepod. In: H.I. Browman and A.B. Skiftesvik (Eds.). The Big Fish Bang. Proceedings of the 26th Annual Larval Fish Conference. Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway, pp: 449-465.

ISBN 82-7461-059-8

Rhodes, A. 2004. Marine Harpacticoid Copepod Culture for the Production of Long Chain Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids and Carotenoid Pigments. Ph.D. Dissertation, North Carolina State University, 161 pp.

Adelaide Rhodes, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate I have spent the past nine years developing practical culture systems for marine copepods to be used in the study of early larval fish development. The reliable laboratory culture of copepods has allowed me to test hypotheses on trophic uptake and bioconversion of lipids by marine organisms; fish growth and development; larval fish behavior; predator-prey interactions; etc. While I am mainly interested in fatty acids, my research interest in copepods has expanded to include ecological processes, invasive species, and functional genomic regulation of lipid storage. Copepods hold the key to the successful recruitment and/or aquaculture of many important commercial and ornamental species.
Education 2004 Ph.D. Zoology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 1992 M.S. Oceanography, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne,FL 1990 B.A. Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA Dissertation Research As a doctoral student, my research focused on elucidating the lipid and carotenoid bioconversion capabilities of marine harpacticoid copepods. I conducted basic experiments that varied the diets of the model organism Nitokra lacustris. I measured the differences in population growth rates, lipid content and lipid quality. I created a model that predicted population growth rates based on observation of individual life history parameters and validated the model with a series of large-scale (>100 L) culture experiments in a fish hatchery. In order to complete this work, I created novel methods for the growth and maintenance of harpacticoid copepods species. In fact, I still have the original culture of Nitokra lacustris, started in 1998, sitting on my kitchen counter. Recent Accomplishments In my postdoctoral research experience at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington, I designed and carried out fish feeding experiments on larval and juvenile coldwater marine species (rock sole, rockfish, Pacific cod, etc.). I used a variety of live and inert feeds to investigate the transfer of nutrients from zooplankton to ichthyoplankton utilizing several methods: HPLC, GC, and inert markers (ICP). At the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, I recently completed two projects on fish growth and nutrient utilization, which are being prepared for publication: 1.) protein replacement diets for lingcod Ophiodon elongatus utilizing Alaskan fisheries by-product and by-catch meals, and 2.) a rapid method to measure the relative uptake of live prey and inert feeds fed to larval finfish.
Recent Classes Spring, 2008: BIO 490E (ECO 486B, University of Washington, Seattle "The Future of Our Planet: Climate, Ecosystems, and Society." Co-instructors: Susan Bates (Atmospheric Sciences); Lisa Marin (Biology) - 2 credit seminar Spring 2007: TESC 408, University of Washington, Tacoma (sole instructor) "Marine Plankton" - 6 credit lecture/lab Awards and Honors 2008 Future Faculty Fellows, University of Washington, Teaching Apprenticeship: "The Future of Our Planet: Climate, Ecosystems and Society" 2007 University of Washington Postdoctoral Research Symposium Speaker 2005 Plenary Speaker, World Association of Copepodologists Section on the Role of Copepods in Aquaculture, 9th ICOC 2003 U.S. Peace Corps Graduate Service Assistantship, North Carolina State University 2002 1st Place Student Poster Award, World Aquaculture Society 2001 Starr Fellowship, Bermuda Biological Station for Research 2000 University Alumni Fellowship, North Carolina State University 2000 Aylesworth Scholarship, Florida Sea Grant 1996 Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, National Sea Grant, NOAA 1992 Aylesworth Scholarship, Florida Sea Grant 1992 Citizen’s Environmental Appreciation Award, Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program	Genomics Research (2007-2008) I have recently started to incorporate a functional and comparative genetic approach to my research on larval fish development and copepod biology. I feel that this approach can provide valuable information on basic physiological processes, such as digestive enzyme development in marine fish and lipid storage in marine copepods. Once these physiological processes have been characterized in the species of interest, I will be able to measure organismal responses to environmental stressors such as reduced prey availability, ocean acidification, the presence of endocrine disruptors and other forms of pollution. By monitoring the expression levels of select genes in laboratory cultures of copepods and/or fish larvae subjected to abiotic and biotic stresses such as toxic algal species and temperatures outside the optimum range we could predict the impacts to the food chain from these possible threats to ecosystem health. For my next postdoctoral project, I will be using multiple approaches to characterize the genes involved in the triggering of diapause in an important copepod species at the base of the food chain in the Northern Pacific region, Neocalanus plumchrus. Some of the methods I will use include suppression subtraction hybridization, differential display, and Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) analysis. In collaboration with Dr. Steven Roberts in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at UW, I will generate cDNA libraries for Neocalanus copepods prior to, during, and following diapause. I hope to characterize several differentially expressed genes as well as a number of previously unidentified genes that could play important roles in the timing of diapause. This work will provide some insights into how food quality and oceanic temperature changes may impact the base of the Northern Pacific food chain that supports a variety of fish and marine mammal species. Aquaculture (2006-2007) In my second year as a postdoctoral researcher at UW, I returned to aquaculture. As a postdoc funded by the USDA ARS and University of Idaho by Dr. Ron Hardy, I assisted Dr. Michael Rust in the development of larval and juvenile fish feeds for two major projects being conducted at the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center Montlake facility in Seattle near the UW. One project tested the efficacy of utilizing Alaskan fisheries by-product and by-catch meals as part of larval and juvenile fish diets. The second project analyzed the uptake of various prey items through the trophic food chain utilizing a variety of live feeds fed inert metal oxides and then fed to larval finfish. During my time at NOAA Fisheries, I also worked on constructing a functional hatchery scale copepod production system to produce millions of copepods per day for research and analysis of the transfer of nutrients. We are awaiting further funding to complete and field test this pilot system. Ballast Water Research Team (2005-2006) In my first year as a postdoctoral researcher at UW, I assisted the Ballast Water Research Team under the supervision of Russell Herwig and Jeff Cordell at the University of Washington. My role in the team was to provide and maintain cultures of nearly forty species of freshwater and marine zooplankton, many of them started from field samples. These cultures were utilized in a range of tests designed to improve the Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) process. The ETV process screens promising new technologies for the reduction of non-indigenous species introduction through ballast water exchange. After culturing and screening the microzooplankton species, we developed a short list of seven surrogate organisms that could potentially be used to represent the response of a much broader group of organisms. We then developed and conducted ecotoxicological assays for microzooplankton using ten proposed ballast water treatment technologies (e.g. ozone, UV, several biocides). After screening, I collected the data from the hundreds of experiments conducted by our lab and our collaborators at Woods Hole, West Virginia University and Old Dominion and prepared a comprehensive database tool for comparing and analyzing the effectiveness of proposed treatments for ridding ballast tanks of bacteria, phytoplankton, protists and zooplankton. The database results were presented to representatives from the EPA, NOAA, and U.S. Coast Guard at a scientific panel meeting in 2007. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center will make this database tool available to researchers around the world as part of the National Ballast Information Clearing House (NBIC). Other Collaborative Research Activities Due to my expertise with culturing and maintaining phytoplankton and zooplankton cultures, I often help local colleagues develop and implement experiments involving zooplankton. For example, working with colleagues from the Department of Oceanography at UW, Dr. Anitra Ingalls and Dr. Carme Huguet, I will be assisting in a study of how copepod ingestion of Crenarchaeota may impact lipid biomarkers. Crenarchaeota lipid biomarkers are used to determine the change in surface water temperatures over time, and it is possible that the encapsulation of Crenarchaeota in calanoid faecal pellets may alter the lipid biomarkers. This experiment will involve field sampling of zooplankton that reside in the water column alongside the Crenarchaeota as well as laboratory experiments to measure the key lipid biomarkers in copepod faecal pellets. In another interesting experimental system, I will be using radiolabeled liposomes to measure the omega-3 bioconversion capability of freshwater and marine zooplankton. I am collaborating with Dr. Michael Brett in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the UW on this project, and we are awaiting notification of funding to continue the work. If successful, we will be able to trace the bioconversion of 18:3n3 to the essential fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) by lower trophic levels food in freshwater and marine systems. For the freshwater system, we will track lipid bioaccumulation and/or bioconversion by the calanoid copepod Diaptomus ashlandi fed to a freshwater model fish species Tilapia nilotica. In the marine system, we hope to replicate the experiment using Acartia tsuensis, a local calanoid, fed to larval rockfish (Sebastes sp.). In a third collaboration, I worked with microbiologists at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (Dr. Mark Strom's lab) to develop an experimental system to test the potential for Vibrio parahaemolyticus transmission by zooplankton to shellfish harvesting areas around the Puget Sound. This bacterial pathogen that causes gastroenteritis may be hitchhiking on closely associated marine copepods, similar to the association established for Vibrio cholerae. My role in the research was to help establish an axenic copepod culture of a local species for laboratory experiments on Vibrio attachment.	Selected Publications Rhodes, A. 2007. Dietary effects on carotenoid composition in the marine harpacticoid copepod Nitokra lacustris. Journal of Plankton Research 29(Supplement 1):i73-i83. Rhodes, A. and L. Boyd. 2005. Formulated feeds for harpacticoid copepods: Implications for population growth and fatty acid composition. In: C.S. Lee, P. J. O'Bryen and N. H. Marcus (Eds.) Copepods in Aquaculture, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK, pp. 61-73. ISBN 0-8138-0066-8 Rhodes, A. 2003. Methods for mass culture of Nitokra lacustris, a marine harpacticoid copepod. In: H.I. Browman and A.B. Skiftesvik (Eds.). The Big Fish Bang. Proceedings of the 26th Annual Larval Fish Conference. Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway, pp: 449-465. ISBN 82-7461-059-8 Rhodes, A. 2004. Marine Harpacticoid Copepod Culture for the Production of Long Chain Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids and Carotenoid Pigments. Ph.D. Dissertation, North Carolina State University, 161 pp.
Send mail to: acer@u.washington.edu Last modified: 11/23/2007 1:05 PM