Dr. Howard R. Lasker

Office: 637 Hochstetter Hall Phone: 716.645.2363 ext.184 Email: hlasker@buffalo.edu Website: Home Page Personal Home Page Title: Director, Graduate Program in Evolution, Ecology and Behavior Degree: Geophysical Sciences, University of Chcago, 1978 Specialty: Populaiton ecology of coral reef organisms

Courses Offered

GLY 309 - Ecology
GLY 409 - Advanced Ecology
GLY 411 - Marine Ecology
GLY 412 - Field Course in Tropical Marine Ecology
GLY 555 - Colloquium in Evolution, Ecology and Behavior

Research Interests

I am interested in the ecology of coral reef organisms particularly the population ecology of octocorals (soft corals and gorgonians). I and my students have conducted studies ranging from the feeding ecology of butterfly fish to the evolution and systematics of corals, and we use techniques that range from scuba based observations to DNA sequencing. Much of my current reseach employs a combination of field experiments and molecular studies to examine the reproduction and recruitment of octocorals on Caribbean reefs.

Recent Publications

Lasker, H.R. and M.A. Coffroth. 1999. Responses of clonal reef taxa to environmental change. American Zoologist 39:92-103.

Beiring, E.A. and H.R. Lasker. Egg production by colonies of a gorgonian coral. Marine Ecology Progress Series 196:169-177

Boller, M. L., Swain, T. D. and H.R. Lasker. 2002. Skeletal morphology and material properties of a fragmenting gorgonian coral. Marine Ecology Progress Series 228:131-141.

Lasker H.R. and Sanchez J.A. 2002. Astogeny and allometry of modular colonial organisms. In: R.N. Hughes (ed.), Progress in Asexual Propagation and Reproductive Strategies . John Wiley, Oxford pp 208-253

Sanchez, J.A., Lasker, H.R. and D.J. Taylor. 2003 . Phylogenetic analyses among Octocorals ( Cnidaria ) according to mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences (lsu-rRNA, 16S and ssu-RNA, 18S) support two convergent clades of branching goronians. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29:31-42

Castanaro, J. and H.R. Lasker. 2003. Effects of clipping on growth of colonies of the Caribbean gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae . Invertebrate Biology 122:209-307.

Lasker, H.R., Boller, M.A., Castanaro, J., and J.A. S·nchez. 2003. Determinate growth and modularity in a gorgonian octocoral. Biological Bulletin 205: 319-330

Sanchez, J.A. and H.R. Lasker. 2003 Patterns of morphologic integration in branching colonies of marine modular organisms: Interspecific comparative analysis in gorgonian corals. Proc. R. Soc. Lond . B 270:2039-2044

Gutierrez-Rodriguez, C. and H.R. Lasker. 2004. Reproductive biology of the Caribbean gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae . Invertebrate Biology 123:53-66

Sanchez, J.A., Lasker, H.R., Neopmuceno, E.G. and M.A. Woldenberg. 2004. Branching and self-organization in marine modular colonial organisms: a model. American Naturalist 163:E24-E39

GutiÈrrez-RodrÌguez, C. and H.R. Lasker. 2004. Microsatellite variation reveals high levels of genetic variability and population structure in the gorgonian coral Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae across the Bahamas. Molecular Ecology 13:2211-2221

Kim, E.A.B., Lasker, H.R., Coffroth, M.A., and K. Kim. 2004. Morphological and genetic variation across reef habitats in a broadcast-spawning octocoral. Hydrobiologia 530:423-432

Lasker, H.R. 2005. Gorgonian Mortality During a Thermal Event in the Bahamas. Bull. Marine Science 76:155-16

Lasker, H.R. High fertilization success in a surface brooding gorgonian. submitted