Alyssa Andres
Who I am
I grew up in a small beach town in New England, USA, in a Filipino-American family where traditions of a life intimately connected to the ocean are passed down the generations. As a child I caught and handled fish of all shapes and sizes, which fostered my curiosity and a need to understand the life beneath the waves. After graduating from Wellesley College, I worked as an intern with white sharks in South Africa, and to say I was instantly hooked on elasmobranch research is an understatement. Sharks have always fascinated me, but when I saw their grace and power up close and yet knew so little about their lives and vulnerability, they became a mystery I wanted to chase for an entire career. Three years of travelling as a research assistant followed, and I was steeped in ecological, conservation and behavioural studies in Western Australia, St Croix and Florida. But it was as a staff biologist at Mote Marine Laboratory’s Behavioral Ecology and Physiology that I fell in love, working on research into shark energetics (energy budgets for activities, energy use and performance) and using burgeoning technology paired with physiology to identify stress and survival of sharks in Florida’s longline fishery.
I realised that combining ecological and behavioural observations with physiology and technological applications enables us to answer why observed phenomena occur and to improve predictions of fish behaviour under diverse conditions. For my doctoral research at the University of South Florida, I identified environmental sensitivities of energetics and performance in coastal sharks of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and the stress effects of climate change on high-energy marine species. Now, as a postdoctoral researcher, I investigate marine predators’ responses to climate shifts, identifying physiological markers of stress, vulnerability and resilience to human-induced challenges and categorising marine predators’ associations with novel environments.
Where I work
My current work is conducted in different locations. My postdoctoral research at Florida State University takes place in the coastal waters of Florida’s ‘Forgotten Coast’, home to many marine species and coastal habitats and one of the fastest-warming marine ecosystems in the world. Rapid thermal change is altering species and ecosystem dynamics, with consequences for changes in ecosystem structure, the sustainability of fisheries and the viability of fish habitats. As inhabitants of these waters are bound by a northern coastline and unable to seek shelter in cooler, more northerly latitudes, the ‘adapt, move or die’ plight of these species becomes more urgent, making this an ideal location to investigate thermal sensitivity, tolerance and resilience in different fish species.
My bull shark research takes place in a spring-fed coastal estuary unlike any other; it not only safeguards and nourishes a huge diversity of aquatic life, but provides sustenance for and is the beating heart of the community surrounding it. Located on Florida’s ‘Nature Coast’ (eastern Gulf of Mexico) and serving as the headwaters for the Crystal River, King’s Bay is a uniquely important ecological, economic and social resource. Both the largest freshwater spring system in the state by outflow and uniquely estuarine in nature, the bay acts as a sanctuary for key marine resources and imperilled species – including key sportfish, newly arrived top marine predators and the largest population of West Indian manatees in the world – due to year-round thermal and saline stability provided by natural spring flows. While the importance of such rare and traditionally stable coastal habitats is increasing as a consequence of climate change and an increasingly tropical environment, spring systems are under intense human-induced pressure, necessitating a deeper understanding of diverse species’ reliance upon the springs and true community investment to facilitate their conservation.
What I do
My research focuses on understanding the processes that drive fish behaviour, fish relationships with their environment and ultimately what dictates the ability of fish to survive and thrive in an era of environmental and human-induced stress. I use a variety of integrative physiological techniques, including in-lab respirometry, biochemical analysis and molecular and comparative physiology. Such techniques help to determine key factors such as the energetics of organisms, limiting environmental thresholds and animal stress, and how these factors may dictate survival. I pair this work with field behavioural ecology studies (fisheries-independent surveys, passive animal telemetry) to put physiology in context, to ground-truth stress and environmental/energetic limits of individuals and populations, and to tell us more about fish species’ behaviour and habitat use.
This integrative work aims to identify viable and effective fish habitat, how currently occupied habitats or ranges are likely to change with environmental shifts and human impacts, and to add predictability to eco-physiological models used for species and population management and conservation. Specifically, the Crystal River Bull Shark Project focuses for the first time on the connection between top predators and the flow and thermal influence of natural springs. Its outcomes are designed to not only give managers better insight into key nursery habitat for bull sharks in their most vulnerable life stages, but also highlight the importance and potential advantages of spring-fed ecosystems over other fish nurseries and the need to turn conservation attention to other unique and imperilled spring-fed systems. Our day-to-day work varies and depends on the project of focus, but ranges from conducting captive behaviour and energetics experiments in the lab and bench-top physiology and tissue analysis to fishing surveys and tissue sampling in the field, passive acoustic surveys, hands-on student mentorship and community outreach and education.