Research fellow: Kelly Cribari
Hometown: Riverside, RI
Major: Marine Biology; minors, Chemistry and Visual Arts
School: Roger Williams University
Faculty mentor: David Taylor
Project: Temperature‐mediated changes in blue crab Callinectes sapidus abundance in the Narragansett Bay and its trophodynamic effect on winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus populations

Rising junior Kelly Cribari started working in the lab of Associate Professor David Taylor, marine biology, since second semester of her freshman year. This summer, as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow for Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR, Cribari is continuing her research in Taylor’s lab and under his guidance out in the field.

She studies the predation of blue crabs on juvenile winter flounder in Narragansett Bay through PCR, or Polymerase Chain Reaction, an analysis tool that can determine what is in the crab gut.

“It is impossible to tell exactly when a crab in the field has last eaten, and specifically if they’ve eaten winter flounder,” says Cribari.

Through PCR, Cribari uses specific primers, or a chain of nucleotides, that only work on and detect the presence of winter flounder up to a certain point after the crab has eaten. Determining how long the primer will work to detect the groundfish, Cribari feeds the crabs and then tests at certain times — two, four, six, or eight hours after feeding — to figure out the detection limit.

Once the parameters are in place for the lab crabs, the primers can be used on crabs collected in the sampling process to assess stomach contents.

Taylor, an EPSCoR researcher, investigates how climate change is affecting the range of expansion of more southern species, and how that shift impacts organisms that have always been here. The work of Cribari and other students will contribute to understanding the predator/prey relationship between the blue crab, a mid-Atlantic species that has ranged northward to New England waters, and the winter flounder, a native species once found in abundance in Rhode Island.

After she gains her undergraduate degree, Cribari is considering pursuing her master’s degree, but has yet to decide on a specific area of study. In the meantime, the SURF experience allows her to work alongside peers, hone her research skills and enjoy summer field trips in the boat to collect samples in the Seekonk and Taunton Rivers.

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to continue my research,” she says. “And, I enjoy the fact that the SURF team is actively involved with students.”

Story and photos by Amy Dunkle