Participants
Susanne Lockhart
On the ICEFISH cruise my research will consist of an overall analysis, involving identification and characterisation, of the benthic invertebrate catch. The data obtained will be used to infer composition, distribution, biomass and demographic structure of contrasting communities off the targeted Subantarctic islands. My principal focus will be on the Antarctic cidaroid, or pencil-spine, sea urchins, in particular their phylogeny (molecular and morphological) and reproduction. The reconstructed phylogeny of these urchins will be used as a model for the evolution of reproductive mode in benthic invertebrates of the Southern Ocean.