Description

Through the juxtaposition of anemone against Goleta Beach temperature data, this image captures beautiful marine life and the ecosystem’s vulnerability in the face of shifting oceanic patterns. I hope it sparks curiosity and reflection on the relationship between ecosystems and the changing climate.

This image represents PhD Candidate Amelia Ritger’s project in the Hofmann Lab: Intraspecific Variation in Anemone Responses to Marine Heat Waves. In the forefront is a picture of the model organism, strawberry anemone, taken prior to the heatwave treatment. In the background is a plot I generated in R using LTER ocean temperature data collected over the last 23 years from Goleta Beach.This juxtaposition provides a look into the environmental context of the study by integrating numerical data with the visual representation of the research subject.

Citation for data used for R plot:
Reed, D, R. Miller. 2023. SBC LTER: Reef: Bottom Temperature: Continuous water temperature, ongoing since 2000 ver 29. Environmental Data Initiative.