Hi! I’m Chris (they/them) and I am a Ph.D. student in the Cordes Lab. Currently, I am working closely with undergraduate students: Safwaan, Mallory, Reuven, and Derek, to study a species of cold-water coral called Lophelia pertusa. This species is found all over the deep ocean, but I study it in the Viosca Knoll leasing blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, where it forms large reefs which sequester carbon in their skeletons and is associated with commercially important fish. My specific research is to quantify changes in the colony health of Lophelia pertusa in this region over time in response to anthropogenic disturbances such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and environmental changes such as global ocean warming, deoxygenation, and ocean acidification. I am also interested in understanding how food limitation affects Lophelia metabolic responses to thermal stress, and plan to carry out an experiment to test if Lophelia can compensate for stress with increased feeding.
If you would like to check out my website, it can be found here: https://sites.temple.edu/ctancredi/
I can be contacted by email at c.tancredi@temple.edu, or you can find me in our lab office (BioLife 449)