Before entering the Marine Science doctoral program at UC Santa Barbara, I earned a Master of Science in Marine Biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. joined the Hofmann Lab as a Ph.D. student in the summer of 2019. My research interests The red sea urchin, Mesocentrotus franciscanus, is an ecologically and economically important species whose peak spawning periods can coincide with times of upwelling and therefore, large fluctuations in pH and temperature. I am currently investigating the response mechanisms of M. franciscanus raised in the laboratory under different pH and temperature conditions. I use a combination of physiological and molecular approaches, including morphometric, transcriptomic, and epigenetic analyses.
Publications
Johnson, K.M., J.M. Wong, U. Hoshijima, C.S. Sugano, and G.E. Hofmann (2018). Seasonal transcriptomes of the Antarctic pteropod, Limacina helicina antarctica. Marine Environmental Research 143: 49-59.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.10.006.
Johnson, K.M., U. Hoshijima, C.S. Sugano, A.T. Nguyen, and G.E. Hofmann (2016) Shell dissolution observed in Limacina helicina antarctica from the Ross Sea, Antarctica: paired shell characteristics and in situ seawater chemistry. Biogeosciences Discussions.https://doi.10.5194/bg-2016-467.