Dr. Martone is a UBC professor and phycologist specializing in the biodiversity, ecophysiology, and evolution of seaweeds. Research in the Martone Lab is diverse, encompassing both lab and field experimentation, and spanning many scales of biological organization. At the largest scale, researchers characterize seaweed communities along the BC coast and monitor how changes in ocean conditions might be affecting community dynamics and diversity. At the individual scale, researchers study physiological and morphological adaptations of seaweeds to tolerate environmental stress, particularly hydrodynamic stresses imposed by waves and water motion. Researchers use state-of-the-art water flumes to characterize hydrodynamic performance of seaweeds in flow and PAM fluorometry to document physiological impacts of climate stress. At the cellular scale, researchers study the chemical composition of cell walls that contribute to biomechanical properties and the cellular development that underlies morphological patterning. At the genetic level, researchers sequence DNA to differentiate and describe new species, and use genomic and transcriptomic datasets to explore the deep evolution of biosynthetic pathways.