Chronology of Ocean Life

Chronology of Ocean Life
Dr. Stephen Trumble (Left) and Dr. Sascha Usenko (Right) visiting scientist at the Natural History Museum London.

Chronology of Ocean Life group is the collaborative effort lead by Drs. Usenko and Trumble, with expertise in marine mammal physiology, biochemistry, analytical and environmental chemistry.  This CoOL group focusing on reconstructing life-history profiles in marine mammals and fish.  The overall approach is to maximize the scientific knowledge that can be gained from unique matrices that record and archive both time and unique chemical or elemental tracers.  Think tree rings, ice cores, and geological sedimentation records.   By combined age estimates with chemical or elemental measurements, we are able to reconstruct life-history profiles for a wide number of marine organisms.  This type of dataset is very rare and longitudinal trend of the same individual allows these smaller datasets to explain time trend as it automatically excluded many confounding factors that cause inter-individual difference.

CoOL Collaborators

Fin Whale earplug with exposed laminae
Fin Whale earplug with exposed laminae.

CoOL Group Student Members

  • Kerri Smith, Post Doc 
  • Farzaneh Mansouri, Ph.D. Candidate (Usenko Lab)
  • McKayla Miller, Ph.D. Candidate (Usenko Lab)
  • Brooke Morris, Ph.D. Candidate (Trumble Lab)
  • Patrick Charapata, Ph.D. Candidate (Trumble Lab)

Selected CoOL Articles 

Blue whale earplug reveals lifetime contaminant exposure and hormone profiles. Stephen J. Trumble, Eleanor M. Robinson, Michelle Berman-Kowalewski, Charles W. Potter, and Sascha Usenko. PNAS October 15, 2013 110 (42) 16922-16926. 

Baleen whale cortisol levels reveal a physiological response to 20th century whaling. Stephen J. Trumble, Stephanie A. Norman, Danielle D. Crain, Farzaneh Mansouri, Zach C. Winfield, Richard Sabin, Charles W. Potter, Christine M. Gabriele, Sascha Usenko.  Nature Communications volume 9, Article number: 4587 (2018) 

CoOL Research Areas and Matrices

  • Hormones - Stress and reproductive 
  • Isotopes - Bulk and Compounds Specific using IRMS
  • Genetics - DNA and Health
  • Contaminants - Organic Compounds and Metals
  • Baleen Whale Earplugs - Reconstructing life-history profiles from Birth to Death
  • Baleen - Reconstructing seasonal life-history trends and events
  • Seal whiskers -
  • Opercula - 
 
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