Siara Mitchell is a current graduate student in the Rouse lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Rouse lab focuses on the diversity and identification of benthic invertebrates worldwide, with particular emphasis on chemosynthetic deep-sea environments and whalefalls. Her M.S. research project involves identifying and describing new species of pycnogonids (sea spiders) from methane seeps using taxonomy, phylogenetics, and morphology. She received her B.S. from UC Davis in Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity, where she worked in aquatic toxicology and water pollution testing, and assisted with the Delta Smelt monitoring program. She has also conducted research at Bodega Marine Lab involving the comprehensive analysis and ecological sampling of a local tide pool that had been originally sampled and recorded eight decades earlier. Siara is excited to be a part of the cruise team and to contribute to research on undiscovered chemosynthetic sites.
Cruises:
