Sabrina Percy
Project
Developing non-invasive biomarkers based on environmental RNA to assess heat stress in freshwater plankton communitiesCurrent biomonitoring approaches to understand species stress response to temperature are invasive and typically not applicable at the community level. Developing biomarkers that can be detected from environmental RNA (eRNA) can provide a non-invasive alternative to assess community response to temperature stress through gene expression data. The objective of my research is to identify eRNA biomarkers and validate these biomarkers on simple experimental microcosms of planktonic communities under temperature stress treatments. This research will build on the development of eRNA methods and can show promise of eRNA as a more accurate biomonitoring and ecological assessment tool.
