WHITE ABALONE REPRODUCTIVE PHYSIOLOGY
I began postdoctoral research on white abalone gametogenesis and reproduction in late 2019. That work can now be found on the WAC Lab Research page.
ASSESSING CLIMATE CHANGE THREATS TO ABALONE
I interned with NOAA in 2016, on the Black Abalone Recovery Team, to create a conceptual model of the threats to the Endangered Black Abalone. Endangered species undergo reviews and assessments, and the agencies tasked with recovering that species creates a plan to bring them back from the brink of extinction. I contributed to this assessment by reviewing all of the major threats to black abalone populations, and creating a conceptual model for how these threats may be worsened by climate change.
HOW DO WARMING TEMPERATURES AND DISEASE AFFECT ABALONE AND PĀUA?
In the early 1980s, a strong El Niño event occurred and has been linked to the first observations of a bacterial disease in abalone called withering syndrome (WS). WS is caused by Candidatus Xenohaliotis californiensis (CaXc), a bacterium that infects the digestive tract of abalone and eventually leads to starvation and death (Friedman et al. 2000). The bacterium has been documented in most, if not all, abalone species, yet the disease state has thus far been restricted to a relatively small proportion of abalone (Haliotis) species at environmentally relevant temperatures (Crosson et al. 2014). Complicating matters more, temperature increases and temperature variability have both been linked to disease expression, even in otherwise resistant species. In brief, I found: (1) resistance and susceptibility to WS can be linked to patterns of relationship in abalone species; (2) pinto abalone exposed to CaXc show distinct patterns in gene expression in their guts, possibly with more expression of genes related to hunger and immune responses ; (3) changes in digestive enzymes levels and metabolic rate, but not in digestibility, occur at elevated temperatures consistent with temperature anomaly events. I also sequenced the gut microbiomes of wild red abalone and pāua guts, and characterized wild digestive physiology in both species.
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HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS? CANNIBALISM AND DIGESTIBILITY IN THE CALIFORNIA GRUNION, LEURESTHES TENUISWorking with collaborators at University of California, Irvine and California State University, Fullerton, we're examining the phenomenon of spawning California grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) eating conspecific eggs. To do this, we're measuring egg digestibility and digestive enzyme activities in the guts of adult grunion. Our results clearly show that grunion are capable of digesting their resilient eggs. (available HERE)
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THE EFFECT OF NITROGEN AVAILABILITY ON CNIDARIAN SYMBIOSISFor my Fulbright research in Dr. Simon Davy’s lab (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand), I studied the effect of nitrogen availability on bleaching susceptibility in the local mud-flat sea anemone Anthopleura aureoradiata. This species does not bleach readily at high temperatures, making it a model organism for cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis work.
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MANGROVES AS INDICATORS OF NITROGEN POLLUTION IN GUAMAs an undergraduate in Dr. Kiho Kim's lab (American University), I studied the whether mangrove cores could be used as effective records of nutrient pollution in coastal ecosystems. This work was completed with collaborators at University of Guam and the Carnegie Institution of Washington Geophysical Lab.
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Resources
Every application for a successful fellowship proposal involved reviewing successful past proposals before writing. I share some of my successful proposals here as a free resource. Please contact me if you have any questions, and remember that there were FAR more failures than there were successes!
NSF GRFP (2013)
braciszewski_graduateresearchstatement.pdf | |
File Size: | 276 kb |
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Fulbright New Zealand (2012)
braciszewski_fulbrightnz_acceptedproposal.pdf | |
File Size: | 79 kb |
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NDSEG (2013)
arb_2013_ndseg_goals_final.pdf | |
File Size: | 71 kb |
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