Marissa Wright -La Greca

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria located on Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada). My PhD is focussed on using  probiotics to improve climate resilience of the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas).

 

Although my PhD is through the University of Victoria, I conduct my research at the Vancouver Island University Center for Shellfish Research and Deep Bay Marine Station facility. 

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I am passionate about understanding the impacts of multi-stressor climate change events on marine organisms. With changing, adverse seawater conditions, I am interested in researching how different marine organisms will respond to near-future seawater conditions. My main research focuses includes researching tools (e.g., genetic selection, probiotics, and seawater conditions during early development) to improve shellfish resilience to growing seawater stressors such as heat, ocean acidification, and bacterial pathogens.

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Shellfish are aquaculturally and ecologically important animals. With the growing global human population, shellfish offer as one of the most environmentally sustainable protein sources available. However, in order to support shellfish demand, scientific tools to promote shellfish survival to climate stressors are needed.