The two disciplines began to converge for Adlerstein during her college days in Chile in the 1970s. In the process of studying phytoplankton, she sketched nearly 400 species—images that later recurred in many of her paintings.

Adlerstein left Chile in the 1980s for the Pacific Northwest, where she completed a second Master’s degree at the University of Washington. There she used her creative talent to help identify the growth pattern of the South American snail loco (Conchalepas conchalepas). She painstakingly used a combination of photography and etching techniques to diagram and analyze markings on the shell.

“I needed to find a way to see … to analyze the distance between the micro-growth structures within the shell to validate if external rings were annual marks,” she explains. “In the end, I was able to identify 15-day growth periods, caused by tides, and create a growth model.” The model was designed to help manage the economically important species.

Adlerstein’s doctoral work was based on studies of a myxosporean parasite in Pacific hake (whiting), a small member of the cod family.

“The idea was to look at the spatial distribution, the number of infected fish and density of parasites,” she explains, to aid in management of the species: “Can we do something in the fishery to minimize the presence of this parasite?”