University of Guam

Christopher S. Lobban

Professor of Biology, College of Natural & Applied Sciences, University of Guam.

The Microscopy Teaching & Research Lab now has a small scanning electron microscope, thanks to the NIH RISE Program 
and the ARRA. Photo by Herman Crisostomo for UOG.

This page:  Current research     Older research (ciliates)    Courses and such     Other online products     Publications

Current research: marine benthic diatom biodiversity. Main website at ProtistCentral. 

This is an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Richard W. Jordan and his students at Yamagata University, Japan, and Dr. Edward C. Theriot and his students at University of Texas, Austin. The diatom flora of the western Pacific islands was unknown and we have set out to determine what species are present using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and (in Texas) gene sequencing. The ProtistCentral site is an image/ID database that scientists, resource managers and students in Guam and Micronesia can use. New and otherwise interesting species are being described in a series of papers of which the first two just completed review. 

I have focused so far on the species to be found in farmer fish turfs, i.e., the diatoms epiphytic on filamentous seaweeds cultivated by certain territorial damselfish in what is undoubtedly a symbiotic association. A sample tuft of such filaments may have >120 species of diatoms.

Stegastes nigricans is one of several farmer fish common on Guam. The algal turf "farm" can be seen on the coral (Porites rus) 
branches in the foreground compared to the background. Photographed about 1 m below low water at GabGab reef, Naval Facilities 
Guam.  More such pictures on ProtistCentral.

Sample diatom seen in the SEM -- but no idea yet what genus!

Older research  (ciliate-zooxanthellae symbioses)   

Maristentor dinoferus  

Thanks to collaboration with the ciliate expert Wilhelm Foissner in Austria and several others, Maristentor was described as a new genus, apparently related to the well-known ciliate Stentor. When colleagues in China got sequence data we had to move it to a new family. Its most prominent characters are its clustering behavior, its symbiotic algae -- hundreds in each giant ciliate cell -- and its abundant fluorescent pigment. A collaboration with physical chemists in Iowa led to the description of the pigment as a novel compound, maristentorin, related to hypericin, and to an invited review of heterotrich ciliate pigments function and photophysics. Current work involves finishing up an in-situ study of how Maristentor copes with fish that graze the biofilm where it lives. 

 
Close up of study tile with Maristentor clusters and biofilm. The white oval marks, about 1 cm across, are where the 
grazer Ctenochaetus striatus (striped bristletooth) took bites out of the biofilm. Many of the Maristentor clusters on 
the upper surface are on thinner biofilm -- is this a coincidence or a defense?

More pictures of Maristentor.

Pictures of a second ciliate with zooxanthellae, Euplotes uncinatus.

 
Courses etc.

I teach  plant diversity and science communication; I edit Micronesica; and I am Program Director of the UOG NIH-RISE Program.  Browse the web pages if you want to know more. 
 

Other online products

Sample publications (reverse chronological)

Scientific Research:

Lobban, C.S., M. Schefter & E.C. Ruck. 2010. Licmophora flucticulata sp. nov. (Licmophoraceae, Bacillariophyceae), an unusual flabellate species from Guam and Palau. Phycologia (in press).

Lobban, C.S., M.P. Ashworth & E.C. Theriot. 2010. Climaconeis species (Bacillariophyceae: Berkeleyaceae) from western Pacific islands, including C. petersonii sp. nov. and C. guamensis sp. nov., with emphasis on the plastids.  Eur. J. Phycol. (in press).

Lobban, C.S. & R.W. Jordan. 2010. Diatoms on coral reefs and in tropical marine lakes. In: J.P. Smol & E.F. Stoermer (eds) The diatoms: applications for the environmental and earth sciences, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, pp. 346-356.

Navarro, J.N. & C.S. Lobban. 2009. Freshwater and marine diatoms from the western Pacific islands of Yap and Guam, with notes on some diatoms in damselfish territories. Diatom Research 24: 123–157.

Lobban, C.S. & M. Schefter. 2008. Freshwater biodiversity of Guam. 1. Introduction, with new records of ciliates and a heliozoan. Micronesica 40: 273–293. PMID: 19079802

Lobban, C.S., K. Quiambao & T.S. Wood. 2008. Freshwater biodiversity of Guam. 2. First Micronesian record of Plumatella bushnelli Wood, 2001 (Bryozoa, Phylactolaemata). Micronesica 40: 295–303.  PMID: 19079770

Lobban, C.S., S. Hallam, P. Mukherjee & J.W. Petrich. 2007. Photophysics and multifunctionality of hypericin-like pigments in heterotrich ciliates: a phylogenetic perspective. Photochem. Photobiol. 83: 1074-1094. PMID: 17780503

Mukherjee, P., D.B. Fulton, M. Halder, X. Han, D.W. Armstrong, J.W. Petrich & C.S. Lobban. 2006. Maristentorin, a novel pigment from the positively phototactic marine ciliate Maristentor dinoferus, is structurally related to hypericin and stentorin. J. Phys. Chem. B, 110: 6359-6364. PMID: 16553454

Lobban, C.S. & A.D.R. N'Yeurt. 2006. Provisional keys to the genera of seaweeds of Micronesia, with new records for Guam and Yap. Micronesica 39: 73-105. On line version    pdf of article (4MB) on Micronesica site  PMID: 18958300

Sommaruga, R., K. Whitehead, J.M. Shick, &  C.S. Lobban. 2006. Mycosporine-like amino acids in the zooxanthella-ciliate symbiosis, Maristentor dinoferus. Protist 157: 185-191. PMID: 16621697

Lobban, C.S., L. Modeo, F. Verni & G. Rosati. 2005. Euplotes uncinatus (Ciliophora, Hypotrichia), a new species with zooxanthellae. Marine Biology 147: 1055-1061.

Miao, W., A.G.B. Simpson, C. Fu & C.S. Lobban. 2005.  The giant zooxanthellae-bearing ciliate Maristentor dinoferus (Heterotrichea) is closely related to Folliculinidae. J. Eukaryotic Microbiology 51: 11-16. 

Lobban, C.S. & R.T. Tsuda. 2003. Revised checklist of benthic marine macroalgae and seagrasses of Guam and Micronesia. Micronesica 35: 54-99. pdf of article (4MB) on Micronesica site

Lobban, C.S., M. Schefter, A.G.B. Simpson, X. Pochon, J. Pawlowsky & W. Foissner. 2002. Maristentor dinoferus n. gen., n. sp., a giant heterotrich ciliate (Spirotrichea: Heterotrichida) with zooxanthellae, from coral reefs on Guam, Mariana Islands. Marine Biology 140:  411-423 + 141: 207-208. pdf of article posted with permission of the publisher

Lobban, C.S., D. Honda, M. Chihara & M. Schefter. 1995. Chrysocystis fragilis, gen. nov., sp. nov. (Chrysophyceae, Sarcinochrysidales), with notes on other macroscopic chrysophytes (golden algae) on Guam reefs. Micronesica 28: 91-102.

Gerath, J.F. & C.S. Lobban. 1991. Desmids from Yap, Caroline Islands. Nova Hedwigia 52: 173-195. pdf of article posted with permission of publisher

Lobban, C.S., F.K. Daily, W.A. Daily, R.W. Hoshaw & M. Schefter. 1990. Periphyton, excluding diatoms and desmids, from Yap, Caroline Islands. Micronesica 23: 27-40. pdf of article posted with permission of the journal.

Lobban, C.S. 1990. Marine tube-dwelling diatoms of the Pacific coast of North America. II. Navicula subgen. Navicula and a key to the tube-dwelling diatoms of the region. Canadian Journal of Botany 68: 707-712.  [For my earlier papers on tube-dwelling diatoms please visit The Tube-Dwelling Diatom Site.]  pdf of article posted with permission of the journal

Books: 

Lobban, C.S. & M. Schefter. 1997. Tropical Pacific Island Environments. Pen-and-ink drawings by Rick L. Castro. University of Guam Press, Mangilao. xxxii+399 pp.

Lobban, C.S. & P.J. Harrison. 1994. Seaweed Ecology and Physiology. Cambridge University Press, New York. 366 pp. 
[New edition in prep. by C. Hurd, P.J. Harrison and C. Lobban]

Lobban, C.S. & M. Schefter. 1992. Successful Lab Reports: A Manual for Science Students. Cambridge University Press, New York. 106 pp.

Lobban, C.S. & M.J. Wynne (eds.) 1981.  The Biology of Seaweeds. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning:

Schefter, M. & C.S. Lobban. 1997. Steps toward an empowering pedagogy for environmental science education in the Pacific Islands. Micronesian Educator 8. 29–55. pdf of article posted with permission of the journal

Schefter, M. & C.S. Lobban. 1997. “Conceptexts” — writing on science concepts. In, S. Tobias & J. Raphael (eds.), The Hidden Curriculum: Faculty-made Tests in Science, Part 2: Upper Division Courses, pp.51-53. Plenum, New York.