Amanda Kahn
Amanda Kahn
Contact Information
8272 Moss Landing Road
Moss Landing, CA 95039
(831)770-4420
akahn [at] mlml [dot] calstate [dot] edu
I am describing two new species of deep-sea hexactinellid sponges found in the northeast Pacific Ocean. These sponges heave a distinct plate-like morphology and may act as microhabitats for other deep-sea benthic organisms. I will also use molecular techniques to study a potential reproductive strategy of these sponges.
Background
Education
BS Biological Sciences, California State University, East Bay 2007
BA Chemistry, California State University, East Bay 2007
Research Experience
As an undergraduate, I used cold-vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectroscopy to study the accumulation and speciation ofn mercury in Spartina foliosa, a native cordgrass, and Spartina alterniflora, an invasive cordgrass, in San Francisco Bay.
In the summers of 2007 and 2008, I was an intern in Ken Smith's lab at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. I studied population demographics of deep-sea 'plate" sponges from 1989 to 2006 using data from a long-term study site in the northeast Pacific, and I performed a feasibility study for a new method of estimating rates of sponge growth.
Publications
Patty, C., B. Barnett, B. Mooney, A. Kahn, S. Levy, Y. Liu, P. Pianetta, and J.C. Andrews (in press). Using X-ray microscopy and Hg L3 XANES to study Hg binding in the rhizosphere of Spartina cordgrass. Environmental Science and Technology.
Kahn, A.S., G.I. Matsumoto, Y.M. Hirano, and A.G. Collins (in prep). A "new" species of stauromedusa from the northeast Pacific.
Kahn, A.S., H.A. Ruhl, and K.L. Smith, Jr. (in prep). Temporal changes in population density and size of two hexactinellid sponge species in the abyssal northeast Pacific.