Sarah Whitney Davies
Associate Professor
Boston University Arts & Sciences
Biology

PhD, University of Texas at Austin
MS, University of Calgary
BS, University of Victoria



Changing climates and ongoing anthropogenic habitat modifications threaten natural ecosystems worldwide. In response to these threats, a species has four choices: i) remain in the natal habitat but suffer reduced fitness, ii) acclimate to current conditions by modifying their physiologies, iii) adapt to the local environment through natural selection on standing genetic variation, or iv) disperse to new, more favorable environments. Research in the Davies lab studies the potential roles of acclimation, adaptation, and dispersal in an organism’s response to rapid climate change.

Predicting persistence becomes more challenging when a species’ fitness depends upon interactions between multiple partners. For corals, their fitness is tightly coupled with their symbiotic relationship with algae of the family Symbiodiniaceae, and this symbiosis is strongly influenced by increasing seawater temperatures. Research in the Davies lab integrates eco-evolutionary experiments with genomic and environmental data to determine how corals and their symbionts interact with each other and their environments to determine symbiosis outcomes under rapid climate change.


Collaborative Research: An Integrative Investigation of Dispersal Plasticity Using a Coral Reef Fish
09/01/2024 - 08/31/2027 (Multi-PI)
PI: Sarah Whitney Davies
National Science Foundation
OCE-2346428

The role of diel thermal variability on coral performance
09/01/2024 - 08/31/2027 (PI)
National Science Foundation
OCE-2402528

Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of an Illumina NextSeq 2000 Sequencing Instrument
09/01/2023 - 08/31/2026 (Multi-PI)
PI: Sarah Whitney Davies
National Science Foundation
CBET-2320685

Collaborative Research: How do selection, plasticity, and dispersal interact to determine coral success in warmer and more variable environments?
11/15/2021 - 10/31/2025 (PI)
National Science Foundation
OCE-2048589

Transcription Factors in Cnidarian Immunity, Symbiosis, and Bleaching
03/01/2020 - 02/28/2025 (Multi-PI)
PI: Sarah Whitney Davies
National Science Foundation
IOS-1937650

Collaborative Research: Building consensus around the quantification and interpretation of Symbiodiniaceae diversity
08/15/2021 - 07/31/2023 (PI)
National Science Foundation
OCE-2127506

Outside your shell: How genomic architecture and thermal limits facilitate species invasions in marine mollusks
07/01/2021 - 06/30/2022 (Key Person / Mentor)
Turner Foundation


Reef connectivity and resilience in the Gulf of Mexico
09/01/2018 - 12/31/2020 (PI)
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine


RAPID: Collaborative Research: Impact of freshwater runoff from Hurricane Harvey on coral reef benthic of organisms and associated microbial communities
12/01/2017 - 11/30/2019 (PI)
National Science Foundation
OCE-1800904

Sharing Flower Garden Banks with the World through Telepresence
11/01/2018 - 10/31/2019 (Subcontract PI)
Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration Dept of Comm NOAA


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Researchers: Career Metrics Uphold Racism, Sexism In Science

Futurity 6/18/2021

Mothers in Academia Address Workplace Inequalities

Lab Manager 3/12/2021

Mothers in academia address workplace inequalities

Phys.org 3/11/2021

Women Scientists Are Calling Bullshit On a Study Claiming That Women Make Bad STEM Mentors

Jezebel 11/24/2020

After scalding critiques of study on gender and mentorship, journal says it is reviewing the work

Science Mag 11/20/2020
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