Colorful Crustaceans: The Diversity and Unique Ecology of Puget Sound Crabs and their Relatives

Puget Sound is one of the most productive ecosystems in the world and as such supports a high diversity of invertebrate life, including crabs and their crustacean relatives. This enigmatic group of beautiful and strange animals has adapted unique strategies to life in some of the most extreme conditions imaginable. Come learn about the myriad ways these fascinating animals have evolved to find food, homes, and mates in areas that range from rocky shores and wide mud flats to the deep sea floor and overlying pelagic waters.

Dr. Kirstin Holsman is a Puget Sound native who's research over the past decade has ranged from exploring the estuarine ecology of mobile crabs to the conservation of endangered Pacific salmon species. Despite the diversity of her research interests, her work is unified by a desire to elucidate the mechanisms that govern species' behaviors and the underlying processes that structure ecological communities. She has explored these topics in freshwater Alaskan lakes, coastal estuaries, and pelagic oceanic ecosystems though a combination of experimental and observation studies and trophic food-web models. Dr. Holsman has a particular interest in invertebrate species and has focused much of her research on crabs and their role in estuarine ecosystems, with an eye toward understanding how human- and climate-induced changes might alter the food-webs on which crabs rely.

Admission: $6, People For Puget Sound members; $8 non-members

RSVP and advance ticket sales: Jamie Wine (206) 382-7007

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