Characterizing the Functional Diversity of Southern Ocean Chordates

Lillian Stern ’26, Biology major Faculty mentor: Dr. Roxanne Banker, Biology Biological invasions are… Invasion events can alter ecosystem properties like species interactions, trophic rank, and abundance. Current scientific research struggles to quantify the effects of biotic invasions effect on ecosystem structure and function. Measuring functional diversity, or the diversity traits such as feeding and living habits, in an ecosystem can provide important information about how organisms and the environment respond to environmental change. Here, we investigate functional diversity of the Chordates in a marine Southern Ocean community that has already been affected by biological invasion. By characterizing how these sensitive ecosystems have responded to previous invasion events, we can use our data to better understand how ecosystems are restructured before, during, and after invasion events.