Marine Sciences major Gwen Pelletier presents at national conference
Gwen Pelletier, Marine Sciences '16, presented a poster at the Experimental Biology conference in Boston. Pelletier was joined by more than 12,000 scientists, who shared their latest findings at this national conference.
Pelletier's poster was titled "Stress Tolerance in the Green Crab, Carcinus maenas, Exposed to Waste Water Treatment Plant Effluent." The poster described the work Pelletier she has done in the lab run by Markus Frederich, Ph.D., associate professor of Marine Sciences, showing that invasive green crabs are nearly completely immune to stress from even high concentrations of waste water treatment plant effluent. This finding contributes to the understanding of the amazing invasive success of this species.
Pelletier's research and conference attendance was funded through an Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the American Physiological Society (APS). The fellowship is awarded to only 24 students nationally each year. Her work was also funded through a Maine SeaGrant award to Frederich. She will continue her research on the invasive green crabs in Frederich's lab this summer.