Dr. Kathy Van Alstyne
My current research focuses on "green tides", large blooms of ulvoid seaweeds that occur in many embayments in the Puget Sound and Northwest Straits regions of Washington. My research group is investigating why blooms occur where they do and the environmental effects caused by them. These studies are very multidisciplinary and incorporate both lab and field work. In collaboration with researchers from Seattle Pacific University, my students, staff, and I have monitored the growth of seaweeds at a half dozen different sites off Fidalgo, Whidbey, and Blakely Islands as well as taking a variety of chemical and physical measurements to try to determine which are affecting the formation of blooms. We are now conducting physiological and ecological experiments to investigate the importance of light, nutrients and herbivores on green tide blooms. Laboratory studies are focused on identifying harmful natural products produced by green tide seaweeds and quantifying the effects of these compounds on organisms that live in areas where green tides occur.
Van Alstyne KL (2008) Ecological and physiological roles of dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and its products in marine macroalgae. In: (C. Amsler, ed.) Algal Chemical Ecology, Springer, Heidelberg, pp. 173-194.
Van Alstyne, KL, Koellermeier L, Nelson (2007) TA Spatial variation in dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) production by Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta) from the Northeast Pacific. Marine Biology 150: 1127-1135.
Ross C, Van Alstyne KL (2007) Intraspecific variation in stress-induced hydrogen peroxide scavenging by the ulvoid macroalga Ulva lactuca. Journal of Phycology 43: 466-474.
Van Alstyne KL, Nelson AV, Vyvyan JR, Cancilla D (2006) Dopamine functions as an antiherbivore defense in a “green tide” alga. Oecologia: 304-311.
Van Alstyne KL, Shupp PJ, Slattery M (2006) The distribution of dimethylsulfoniopropionate in tropical Pacific coral reef invertebrates. Coral Reefs 25: 321-327.
Henry BE, Van Alstyne KL (2004) Effects of UV radiation on growth and phlorotannins in Fucus gardneri (Phaeophyceae) juveniles and embryos. Journal of Phycology 40: 527-533.
Van Alstyne KL, Houser LT (2003) Dimethyl sulfide release during macroinvertebrate grazing and its role as an activated chemical defense. Marine Ecology Progress Series 250: 175-181.
Van Alstyne KL, Wolfe GV, Freidenburg TL, Neill A, Hicken C (2001) Activated defense systems in marine macroalgae: evidence for an ecological role for DMSP cleavage. Marine Ecology Progress Series 213 53-65.
Paul VJ, Van Alstyne KL (1992) Activation of chemical defenses in the tropical green algae Halimeda spp. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 160: 191-203.
Van Alstyne KL, Paul VJ (2000) The biogeography of polyphenolic compounds in marine macroalgae: temperate brown algal defenses deter feeding by tropical herbivores. Oecologia 84: 158163.
Van Alstyne KL (1988) Herbivore grazing increases polyphenolic defenses in the brown alga Fucus distichus.Ecology 69: 655‑663.
