Research EcologistSmithsonian Institution
Email: lohank@si.edu
Phone: 443-482-2225
Visit Katrina's Research Website
Research Disciplines: Research Interests:
bivalves, crustaceans, seagrasses, parasites, parasitic helminths, parasitic protists, metabarcoding, genomics, finfish, river otters, zoonoses
Biographical Sketch
Katrina Lohan is a parasite tracker and one of the newest principal investigators at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, headquartered on Chesapeake Bay in Edgewater, Maryland. She heads the Marine Disease Ecology Lab, launched in 2017. Before starting her own lab, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow with the center’s Marine Invasions Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Marine Science at the College of William and Mary, her M.S. in Biology at American University, and her B.S. in Marine Science at Southampton College of Long Island University. Katrina has searched for marine parasites on both U.S. coasts, Central America and the Gulf of Mexico.
Education
- 2011 Ph.D., Marine Science, The College of William and Mary
- 2006 M.S., Biology, American University
- 2004 B.S., Marine Science, Southampton College of Long Island University
Ongoing and Recent CESU Projects
- NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, “The value of shallow tributary habitats of upper Chesapeake Bay to the Summer Flouder Paralichthys dentatus”
- NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, “Integrative Assessment of the Quality of Shallow Tributary Forage Habitats for Striped Bass in Chesapeake Bay”
- Smithsonian Institution, “Human-mediated transfer of marine microorganisms by ships: Assessing current management gaps”
- Smithsonian Institution, “Long-term monitoring of parasite diversity, abundance, and impacts across trophic levels in the Rhode River”
Other Research
- Assessing parasites and other microbes associated with the ballast water, zooplankton, and hulls of commercial ships
- Examining the diversity of Labyrinthula parasites infecting seagrasses on both coasts of North America
- Comparative genomics of Labyrinthula parasites
- Latitudinal distribution of Perkinsus species in oysters