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As the sun sets over Bogue Sound, Kate Blizzard crouches on the dock at the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) and casts a line into the salty water below. She sits patiently, slowly winding a shrimp-baited hook through the water until she feels what she’s waiting for: the bite of a pigfish, a perch-like species native to the East Coast.

She feels the tug on the line, reels in the pigfish, and within minutes, the fish is in a laboratory tank just steps away, beginning the next stage of its journey. Blizzard will test how much heat the fish can withstand before experiencing stress, helping researchers better understand how coastal species may respond as ocean temperatures continue to rise.

More than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases over the past 50 years has been absorbed by the ocean, making it increasingly important for scientists to understand the thermal limits of marine life. North Carolina’s commercial fishing industry depends on the stability of certain fish populations that have already begun to fluctuate due to climate change. Fish also play a critical role in coastal ecosystems. Rapid changes could destabilize the ecology, leading to downstream impacts on recreation and tourism.

For Blizzard, the work has become the centerpiece of a research journey that began with a semester-long field program on the North Carolina coast.

Finding her sea legs

Blizzard began working on this project during her junior year through the Morehead City Field Site, one of four residential programs offered by the UNC Institute for the Environment. Students spend a semester immersed in local ecosystems while conducting original research alongside faculty mentors.

Working in the lab of Janet Nye, interim director of IMS, Blizzard inherited a project examining thermal tolerance in coastal fish. Previous students had studied other species, but pigfish offered an opportunity to ask new questions and extend the research in a different direction.

Pigfish belong to a family of fish known as grunts, which are commonly found in seagrass beds. Because their growth and survival are closely linked to seagrass habitats, the presence or absence of pigfish can shed light on the overall health of a marine ecosystem.

In addition to contributing to a growing body of scientific knowledge, Blizzard began to develop her identity as a researcher.

“This was the first time I got to do research on my own,” she says. “Real research has so many twists and turns. You have to push through them and keep yourself accountable.”

Looking back, Blizzard considers those challenges some of the most rewarding parts of the experience. Unlike classroom assignments with clear answers, research often begins with uncertainty. Experiments fail, methods change, and unexpected results raise new questions.

Reeling in results

The experience inspired Blizzard to add a marine science minor and expand the project into her honors thesis. With support from the Roberts-Watson Family Research Award at Carolina, she returned to IMS this summer to investigate how thermal tolerance changes across the pigfish lifecycle.

She suspected larger fish would tolerate a narrower range of temperatures than the juveniles she had previously studied. While she is still analyzing her latest results, data collected over several years by Blizzard and previous students have already revealed intriguing patterns. The critical thermal limit — the highest or lowest temperature a fish can tolerate — can vary widely among fish species.

These findings didn’t surprise her mentor. Because North Carolina is located on the boundary between subtropical and tropical ocean ecosystems, Nye imagined that fish acclimated to different regions may have different thermal tolerances. But while Nye and Blizzard have confirmed this pattern, some species defy convention.

“Many tropical species are thought to have a narrower temperature tolerance, making them more sensitive to climate change,” Nye says. “Our research has shown this is not always true. Some subtropical species can tolerate a much wider range of temperatures, suggesting they may be more resilient to warming ocean conditions than originally thought.”

Riding the tide

While marine science has become an important part of Blizzard’s future, it is not her only passion. A second major in Romance languages has allowed her to strengthen her Portuguese and deepen her connection to her Brazilian heritage and her mother, whom she speaks with often.

“I love being able to go from a computer science class to a Romance language class where I’m learning about Brazilian literature,” she says.

One day, Blizzard hopes to conduct marine research in Brazil, combining her interests in environmental science, language, and culture. However her career unfolds, she traces that vision back to the docks and laboratories of Morehead City, where she first discovered what life as a scientist could look like.

“Being able to do my own work and experience marine biology in person was really helpful,” Blizzard says. “I think the experience will be so important for my career.”