University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 2007 Resolving the 150 year debate over the ecological history of the common periwinkle snail, Littorina littorea, in northeast North America April M H Blakeslee University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Blakeslee, April M H, "Resolving the 150 year debate over the ecological history of the common periwinkle snail, Littorina littorea, in northeast North America" (2007). Doctoral Dissertations. 364. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/364 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RESOLVING THE 150 YEAR DEBATE OVER THE ECOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE COMMON PERIWINKLE SNAIL, Littorina littorea, IN NORTHEAST NORTH AMERICA. BY APRIL M.H. BLAKESLEE B.A., Boston University, 1998 M.A., Boston University, 2001 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology May, 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3260587 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3260587 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. Dissertation Co-Director, Dr. James E. Byers, Associate Professor of Zoology Dissertation Co-DiretSjgr, Dr. Michael P. Lesser, Research Professor of Zoology y ' X- - < - X Dr. Thomas D. Kocher,Professor of Zoology Dr. Daniel A. Brazeau, Research Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics, University at Buffalo • ? _____ D/. James T. Carlton, Professor of Marine Sciences, fliams College; Director, Williams-Mystic Program Dr. Todd C. Huspeni, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION I wish to dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Dr. Jan Laws Houghton and Dr. Raymond C. Houghton, Jr., for their continued encouragement and support over the years in helping me work towards the kind of education that would make me happiest. I am grateful for the opportunities they have provided for me, and I only hope I can do the same someday for my son, Westley. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have numerous upon numerous people to thank for help/advice/support over the past 5 Vi years of my Ph.D. career. First and foremost, I thank my advisors, Jeb Byers and Michael Lesser, who provided me this opportunity in the first place and got me working in a direction I never dreamed or ever expected I would find myself. I now have a great appreciation for molecular tools, and I find parasitology fascinating. I thank both Jeb and Michael for all their support over the years, their great advice, and finally their financial help. I have learned a great deal from both of them, and I hope to continue to learn more. I know they have done a lot for me— some of which I know about and some of which was behind the scenes, and I am thankful for everything. I also thank my committee members, Dr. Dan Brazeau, Dr. Jim Carlton, Dr. Todd Huspeni, and Dr. Tom Kocher. Each has given me a lot of advice over the years in all aspects of my project. Dan and Tom provided extensive molecular advice and support; Todd was invaluable in his parasitology and ecological understanding and advice; and finally, Jim imparted a lot of his immense knowledge and advice in all aspects of marine ecology but especially in invasion biology. I also thank Jim for mentioning the whole Littorina littorea dilemma to me when I first met him back in 2001—that got the wheels turning for my advisors and I and thus my project was borne. Jim has also provided a great deal of advice and help towards my future career, and I am extremely appreciative iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of that. Finally, all of my committee members have helped in reviewing manuscript drafts—thank you for that! Thank you to the Byers lab graduate students, past and present, which include Irit Altman, Aaren Freeman, Blaine Griffen, Wan Jean Lee, John Meyer, and Laura Page. Every member of the lab has been supportive, and I have developed lasting friendships with my present and former lab-mates. Thank you to all of them for reading countless drafts, listening to countless talks, talking over ideas, and just talking in general. I thank all the many undergraduate and recent post-undergraduate students who have helped me in the lab and field, which include: Lena Collins, Erin Dewey, Sarah Fierce, Amy Fowler, Greg Goldsmith, Amy Houghton, Anna Kintner, Tim Maguire, Vicky Taibe, and Deb Zdankoweicz. Every single person I worked with was excellent, though I must thank a few of them who worked with me for awhile and made my life so much easier—Amy H (my sister), Amy F, Greg, Anna, Lena and Deb. Thanks guys! I would also like to thank the many people who helped me acquire snails overseas and at distant North American sites. Thank you to: Thierry Backeljau, Ross Coleman, Andres Figueroa, John Grahame, Maya Janamma, Kurt Jensen, Kerstin Johannesson, Ladd Johnson, Anna Kintner, Manuela Krakau, Ruth Ramsay, Colleen Suckling, Sarah Teck, Abe Tucker, and Suzanne Williams. This help has been invaluable to my research and I am so grateful for everyone who took the time out to collect and ship snails to me. I have several funding sources to thank. First and foremost, thank you to the History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) and Andy Rosenberg who provided me funding for my first two years and allowed me to come to UNH. Being part of the HMAP v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. program has been extremely rewarding—I have made some lasting friendships, collaborations, and have gone on some great overseas trips (twice to Denmark!) all thanks to this program and to Andy Rosenberg who selected me to be part of it. In addition, various UNH departments and programs have also been very generous: I have received travel funding to attend conferences for the past 5 years from the graduate school, the Zoology department, and the Marine Program. In addition, the Marine Program provided a couple small research grants, which helped fund my molecular work and travel to collection sites. The Zoology department also awarded me a Hatch Grant summer 2006. Finally, the UNH Writing Center provided me two years of a Graduate Fellowship, and the Zoology Department gave me three Teaching Assistant positions. I have also received small grants from several sources outside the University, including Sigma Xi, which provided me research grants two years in a row; Lemer-Gray (American Museum of Natural History); and the American Malacological Society. Jeb Byers also received an NSF SGER grant (OCE 05-03932), which was used to fund many aspects of my research, especially the expensive molecular parts. Finally, the Shoals REU program has provided me with a lot of support in the form of research help and in my experimental and mentoring education. I also thank several UNH and non-UNH people who have provided me with molecular and other advice/support over the years, including Karen Carleton, Andy Cooper, Fiona Cuthbert (Bonne Bay Laboratory) and John Wares (University of Georgia). UNH support by Flora Joyal, Diane Lavallier, and Nancy Wallingford was also vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. much appreciated. I bugged each of them on numerous occasions and they were always really helpful and kind to me. Finally, I thank my family: my parents, to whom I have dedicated this dissertation; my sister, Amy, who worked with me one summer and was always hard­ working and helpful during that time; and my twin brother, Ray, who made all the maps in this dissertation and also the trematode life cycle diagram. Ray has also let me practice talks for him and has been willing to listen when I needed an ear to bend. Finally, words cannot describe how grateful I am to my husband, Mike, who has supported me in so many ways during this process—he helped me dissect more snails than I know he wants to remember; he accompanied me on many travels (some of which were extremely unpleasant; e.g., long, long hours of driving and working in record heat during the summer of 2003); he let me practice talks over and over for him; he kept me sane when 1 was feeling overwhelmed; and he let me work as hard as 1 needed to without ever making me feel guilty (I, of course, felt guilty on my own for those weeks where we barely got to see each other).