Zachary Stahlschmidt

RESEARCH FOCUS

Why do some animals exhibit greater   (insert trait)   than other animals? My research strives to understand the factors underlying differences in traits related to life history (e.g., body size and reproduction), behavior (e.g., parental care and personality), and physiology (e.g., energy use, immunity, and oxidative stress).  I integrate physiology, behavior, and ecology to provide new insight into the dynamics by which two factors -- tradeoffs and the environment -- influence important aspects of the animal phenotype.  My work examines interactions among environmental factors and animal traits in an array of taxa (from insects to snakes to mammals).