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Overarching Interests
As a scientist, my broad interest is in ecophysiology. I enjoy studying how an organism's environment can affect its fitness and physiology. While this is an overarching interest of mine, I am always interested in collaborating with scientists from other fields to answer novel questions.
Current Projects
The impact of water restriction and heat on Zebra Finches fitness correlations
When organisms are exposed to challenging environments, balancing immediate survival and reproduction can force trade-offs between self-preservation and future fitness. Exposure to stressful environmental conditions can disrupt this balance, and negatively impact reproductive success. Further physiological metrics are needed to truly understand how an organism responds to stress and how those responses can impact reproduction. We hypothesize that the combination of two extreme environmental conditions will result in lowered reproductive output compared to only one extreme environmental condition, and individuals experiencing two extreme environmental conditions will have physiological signatures indicative of low reproductive output (for example high oxidative damage, low levels of sex steroids). This work has ecological implications as the frequencies of heat waves and droughts have been increasing in recent years. Additionally, lowered reproductive output can have serious implications for population survival.
Previous Projects
Previous Projects
Sex differences and blood biomarkers after an acute heat exposure in Zebra Finches
A recent increase in the frequency of heat waves has urged researchers to examine organismal responses to acute extreme temperatures. Additionally, if sexes differ in their response to extreme temperatures, heat can disproportionately affect males and females. These sex-specific physiological responses to transient extreme temperatures are critical as sex differences and weather events can potentially lead to population instability. In this study we examine how circulating corticosterone, glucose, ketone, and DNA damage levels differ in males and females after exposure to an acute heat event.
Thermal sensitivity of metabolic rates across ontogeny in a widespread lizard
Ectotherms that span large geographic areas can have varying thermal environments depending on latitude and altitude. The thermal environment which an ectotherm inhabits can determine many phenotypes and physiological rates. One such physiological rate of importance is metabolic rate. Metabolism underlies all processes of an organism that require energy, making metabolic rate a great general measure of organismal performance. Our research aims to understand how metabolic rates in ectotherm populations may compensate, adapt, or evolve to their local thermal environments.
Temperatures affect on oxidative damage in an ectotherm
Early hypotheses in oxidative damage research predicted that reactive oxygen species generation would positively correlate with metabolic rates. However, researchers are failing to support this hypothesis in their studies. Ectotherms are great model organisms for temperature related questions as metabolic rate and many other physiological processes are positively correlated with their ambient temperature. Many ectotherms inhabit large latitudinal ranges where populations are being exposed to warmer or cooler annual temperatures. Some studies show that lizards from northern latitudes have different physiological rates compared to lizards from southern latitudes. This project examines if lizards from different latitudes incur differing amounts of oxidative damage depending on the thermal environment they are exposed to.
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