Christopher Freeman

Visiting Assistant Professor

Education

Ph.D. - University of Alabama at Birmingham
M.S. - Georgia Southern University
B.A. - Connecticut College

Research Interests

Coral reef ecology
Symbiosis
Sponge ecology
Community ecology
Estuarine suspension feeders

Affiliations

Honors Faculty Fellow
Research Adjunct Faculty, Graduate Program in Marine Biology, College of Charleston
Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution

Courses Taught

BIOL 111: Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology
BIOL 211: Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation Biology
BIOL 213: Marine Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation Biology
BIOL 341: General Ecology
BIOL 406: Conservation Biology

Selected Publications

Deutsch, J.M., M.O. Green, P. Akavaram, A.C. Davis, S.S. Diskalkar, I.A. Du Plessis, H.A. Fallon, E.M Grason, E.G. Kauf, Z.M. Kim, J.R. Miller II, A.L. Neal, T. Riera, S.-E. Stroeva, J. Tran, V. Tran, A.V. Coronado, V.V. Coronado, B.T. Wall, C.m Yang, I. Mohanty, N.H. Abrahamse, C.J. Freeman, C.G. Easson, C.L. Fiore, A.E. Onstine, N. Djeddar, S. Biliya, A.V. Bryksin, N. Garg, and V. Agarwal. 2023. Limited metabolomic overlap between commensal bacteria and marine sponge holobionts revealed by large scale culturing and mass spectrometry-based metabolomics: An undergraduate laboratory pedagogical effort at Georgia Tech. Marine Drugs 21: 53. https://doi.org/10.3390/md21010053  

Galimany, E., J. Lunt, C.J. Freeman, I. Segura-Garcia, M. Mossop, A. Domingos, J. Houk, and V.J.     Paul.  2021. Bivalve feeding on the brown tide Aureoumbra lagunensis in a shallow coastal environment. Frontiers in Marine Science 8.714816. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.714816

Fallon, B., and C.J. Freeman. 2021. Plastics in Porifera: The occurrence of potential microplastics inmarine sponges and seawater from Bocas del Toro, Panama. Peer J 9:e11638. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11638

Freeman, C.J., C.G. Easson, C.L. Fiore, and R.W. Thacker. 2021. Sponge-microbe interactions on coral reefs: Multiple evolutionary solutions to a complex environment. Frontiers in Marine Science 8:705053. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.705053

Mohanty, I., S. Tapadar, S. Moore, J. Biggs, C.J. Freeman, D. Gaul, N. Garg, and V. Agarwal. 2021.  Presence of bromotyrosine alkaloids in marine sponges is independent of metabolomic and microbiome architectures. mSystems 6: 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.01387-20

Janiak, D.S., C.J. Freeman, J. Seemann, J.E. Campbell, V.J. Paul, and J.E. Duffy. 2020. Spatial variation in the effects of predator exclusion on epifaunal community development in seagrass beds. Marine         Ecology Progress Series 649:21-33. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13449

Galimany, E., J. Lunt, C.J. Freeman, J. Houk, T. Sauvage, L. Santos, J. Lunt, M. Kolmakova, M. Mossop, A. Domingos, E.J. Phlips, and V.J. Paul. 2020. Bivalve feeding responses to microalgal bloom species in the Indian River Lagoon: The potential for top-down control. Estuaries and Coasts 43: 1519-1532. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00746-9

Freeman, C.J., C.G. Easson, K.M. Matterson, R.W. Thacker, D.M. Baker, and V.J. Paul. 2020. Ecological diversification in Caribbean sponges: A new perspective on an ancient association. ISME J 14: 1571-1583. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-0625-3

Baker, D.M., C.J. Freeman, C.Y. Wong, M.L. Fogel, and N. Knowlton. 2018. Climate change promotes parasitism in a coral symbiosis. ISME J 12: 921-930. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-018-0046-8

Fiore, C.L., C.J. Freeman, and E.B. Kujawinski. 3017. Sponge exhalent seawater contains a unique chemical profile of dissolved organic matter. Peer J 5:e2870. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2870