简介

Dr. Rotjan's research addresses the interface between ecology, symbiosis, and behavior to ultimately determine how organisms interact with their environments. Although she works on a wide variety of model organisms, Randi most often works on ecosystem engineers, which are organisms that have a disproportionate influence on their habitat (such as reef-building corals). Randi uses an integrative approach, combining exploratory observations with manipulative experiments to discover the patterns and uncover the mechanisms guiding ecosystem engineer performance. In addition, Dr. Rotjan also studies hermit crab shell choice behavior, the conservation ecology of tropical reef communities, trophic dynamics and corallivory, and the evolution and ecology of symbiosis in marine invertebrates. She provides updates on her research in the Phoenix Islands on the Phoenix Islands Expedition blog.