Integrating Ecological and Molecular Techniques to Address Questions in Microbial Physiology, Host-Microbe Interactions, and Nutrient Dynamics

Our laboratory is a community of learners. Our science can only thrive when we support and embrace our differences and our shared love for learning. Thus, in this lab, it is expected that we support one another and work to foster a positive learning environment for everyone.

News:  We are starting a new fall semester and have a mix of new students in-training and more senior students in the lab. We will be continuing our sponge microbial symbiont culturing, marine sponge DOM data analysis, and collection/ID of freshwater sponges, including assessing recovery from hurricane Helene. It will be a busy fall! Below are images from collections and field trips last fall and the World Sponge Conference in Portugal (yes sponge scientists from around the world get together to share ideas and data every 3-4 years!)

And if you are on Instagram, check out our story with Waterlust for ‘Fieldwork Friday’ (you will have to log into your account to view the story)

Also a news update, I not been on Twitter since it changed to X, but now I am back on this type of platform and you can follow our lab activities at the same handle but through BlueSky Social: @spongesymbiont.bsky.social

Also, check out a youtube video make by an App State undergraduate student on our sponge microbiology research: https://youtu.be/W6NOO5rCEsY.

Check out our blogroll for field work blog posts – the most recent was in August 2024

Sponges are amazing animals that have a pivotal role in the structure and function of the ecosystems they inhabit. Sponges are known for their filtration capacity – filtering hundreds of liters of water per hour. Because of this ability, sponges can alter which nutrients, and the amount of nutrients, that are present in the water column. Most sponges also contain diverse microbial symbionts, which might be one reason sponges have survived for so long relatively unchanged (~600 million years). These organisms provide a relatively simple system for probing and asking questions about the ecology of symbiotic associations and about host-microbe interactions.

My research includes three main focus areas: symbiosis between sponges and microbes, nutrient cycling on coral reefs, and marine microbial ecology and physiology. Much of my work has been focused on the Caribbean and I currently have two NSF-funded projects to continue coral reef microbiology, but I also have a broad ecological and molecular background, having worked as a lab manager in a pulmonary research lab and  on deep water sponge reefs, shallow temperate water habitats and laboratory grown cultures of marine microbes.

At ASU I have been focused on characterizing the diversity of freshwater sponges in Western North Carolina and understanding their ecology. I am also working on bioluminescence in marine dinoflagellates, the physiological response of marine algae to nutrient limitation, and anaerobic digestion of marine algae. More information about each of the major focus areas can be found using the links above.

Students in action

If you are interested in in joining the lab please email me at fiorec@appstate.edu. I am looking for motivated undergraduate and graduate students interested in marine ecological and/or molecular focused research.