Accessibility Navigation

  • Skip to Content
  • Skip to Navigation
Link to Smithsonian Institution homepage(link is external)
Login
Marine GEO logo

Main navigation

  • About Us
    • What We Do
    • Our Values
    • Who We Are
    • Guiding Documents
    • Opportunities
  • Our Network
    • Network Observatories
    • Collaborating
    • Join Us
  • Research
    • About Our Research
    • The MarineGEO Toolkit
    • Network Projects
    • Our Data
    • Publications
  • News & Events
  • Contact Us
  • Donate

User account menu

  • Log in

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. About Us
  3. Who We Are

Rachel Collin

Rachel Collin

Network Members

Director

Smithsonian Tropical Research Insitute, Bocas del Toro Research Station

Rachel Collin headshot

Rachel's laboratory explores how marine invertebrates successfully reproduce. There are almost as many strategies for reproduction as there are kinds of marine organisms. Her lab tries to understand how environmental conditions and evolutionary history shape the way snails (and crabs and sea urchins) reproduce and develop. They use seasonal upwelling in the Bay of Panama (Pacific) and seasonal development of a low-oxygen water layer in Bocas del Toro (Caribbean) to understand how environmental conditions impact reproductive timing and larval growth and survival. They use experiments to understand how animals choose mates, how their neighbors influence how much they invest in reproduction, and, in the case of slipper limpets, how snails choose when to change sex.

As Director of STRI’S Bocas Del Toro Research Station, Rachel works to promote understanding of the environment and biodiversity of the Bocas region. Part of this effort includes her collaboration with other taxonomists from around the world to develop tools to improve access to taxonomic tools including methods for observing and identifying marine invertebrates.

Rachel is a contributor to the Caribbean, Panama Observatory.

Google Scholar

Follow Us
Facebook Twitter Flickr YouTube
  • About Us
    • What We Do
    • Our Values
    • Who We Are
    • Guiding Documents
    • Opportunities
  • Our Network
    • Network Observatories
    • Collaborating Organizations
    • Join Us
  • Our Research
    • About Our Research
    • Network Projects
    • Research in Action
    • Our Data
    • Publications
  • Resources
    • News & Media
  • Contact Us
Link to Smithsonian Institution homepage(link is external)
The Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO), directed by the Smithsonian’s Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network (TMON), is a network of partners researching biodiversity as the heart of healthy, productive, coastal ecosystems, where marine life and people are concentrated and interact most. MarineGEO marshals the Smithsonian’s leadership in discovery and convening power to advance knowledge useful to decision-makers in supporting innovative management and protection of marine life.