Florence Thomas
PhD University of California Berkeley, 1992
Associate Researcher
Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology
Coconut Island
P.O. Box 1346
Honolulu, Hawaii 96744 U.S.A.
phone: (808) 236-7418
FAX: (808) 236-7443
fithomas@hawaii.edu
www.himb.hawaii.edu/html/beef/index.php

Research Interests
My research integrates biomechanics, physiology, molecular biology, and coastal oceanography to examine how the physical environment influences key physiological, ecological and ecosystem processes in tropical vegetated canopies, coral reefs, and other shallow coastal habitats.
My research interests focus in three areas
1) How water flow and other physical parameters influence chemical exchange between organisms and the water column,
2) How shifts in algal communities affect nutrient exchange, grazing and other aspects of ecosystem function, and
3) How water flow and gamete properties influence reproduction in marine invertebrates.

Publications
Adhitya, A., F.I.M. Thomas, and B. B. Ward. 2007, Diversity of assimilatory nitrate reductase genes from plankton and epiphytes associated with a seagrass bed. Microbial Ecology, 54:587-597.

Inamdar M.V., Kim T., Chung Y.-K., Was A.M., Xiang X., Wang C.-W., Takayama S., Lastoskie C.M., Thomas F.I.M. and A.M. Sastry. 2007, Assessment of sperm chemokinesis with exposure to jelly coats of sea urchin eggs and resact: a microfluidic experiment and numerical study. Journal of Experimental Biology 210:3805-3820.

Adhitya A., Thomas F.I.M. and B. B. Ward. 2007, Diversity of nitrate reductase genes from planktonic and epiphytic environments in seagrass communities. Microbial Ecology 54:587-597.

Kim T., Wang C.W., Thomas F.I.M. and A.M. Sastry. 2006, Fluid-structure interaction analysis of flow-induced deformation in a two-phase, neohookean marine egg. Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology Ð transactions of the ASME 128:519-526.

Cornelisen C.D. and F.I.M. Thomas. 2006, Nutrient uptake in seagrass canopies: response to a changing hydrodynamic regime at the community and organism level. Marine Ecology Progress Series 312:1-13.

Van Duyl, F.C., Sheffers S.R., Driscoll M.D. and F.I.M. Thomas. 2006, The effect of water exchange on bacterioplankton depletion and inorganic nutrient fluxes in coral reef cavities. Coral Reefs 25:23-36.

Cornelisen C.D. and F.I.M Thomas. 2004, Ammonium and nitrate uptake by leaves of the seagrass Thalassia testudinum: effects of hydrodynamic regime and epiphyte cover on uptake rates. Journal of Marine Systems 49:177-194.

Thomas F.I.M and C.D. Cornelisen. 2003, Ammonium uptake by seagrass communities: effects of oscillatory versus unidirectional flow. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 247: 51-57.

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