PhD Program in Biology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior

Daisuke Goto

Dissertation/Thesis Adviser: Dr. William G. Wallace, The College of Staten Island, CUNY

Education:

2001—Present: Ph.D. Student, Department of Biology, EEB, the Graduate School and University Center, CUNY, New York
2001: B.S., Department of Biological Science, DePaul University, Illinois

Research Interests:

Ecotoxicology of marine and estuarine organisms, especially in the areas of trophic interactions among benthic organisms and their physiological mechanisms involving toxic substances in the environments.

Fundulus heteroclitus

Palaemonetes pugio

My research focuses on ecotoxicology of aquatic organisms, especially in the areas of their physiological and biochemical mechanisms involving in trophic transfer of trace metals in estuarine and marine food webs. I am interested in examining the ecological and biological impacts of trace metals on these organisms by looking at responses at the organismal level, in order to assess higher levels of biological organization (i.e. population and community levels).

I currently work on the trophic transfer of various trace metals (e.g. cadmium, zinc, copper, and silver) in several salt marshes of Staten Island, NY by using physiological and biochemical approaches. I am trying to elucidate the detoxification mechanisms through the subcellular distribution of metals within the mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus (as predator), the grass shrimp Palaemonetes pugio and the polychaete Nereis succinea (as prey organisms), which involves radio-isotopic work, cellular fractionation, and atomic absorption spectrometry. By using an intermediate predator, mummichogs, as a trophic link between aquatic and terrestrial environments as well as between benthic invertebrates and piscivorous predators, I'm examining the potential impact of trace metals on the estuarine community.

Also, I'm interested in the impact of metals on the digestive mechanism of marine organisms. For my thesis work, by using the gut extract of mummichogs, I'm trying to find out how the digestive processes of this predator affect the subcellular redistribution of metals after the ingestion of invertebrate prey organisms from contaminated areas.

Return to student list.