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My primary research goal is to understand how organisms adapt and respond to changing environments, thereby enabling the prediction of their responses to future environmental changes. To accomplish this, I combine theoretical and empirical approaches, using lizards as a model organism. Below you can find more about some of my current research projects:
Speaking at the SICB meeting in Seattle, 2024 about my research on modelling the evolution of viviparity in lizards.
Evolution of viviparity in lizards
Evolution of viviparity in lizards
Lizards have independently evolved live birth (viviparity) over 70 times in their evolutionary history, making them an ideal group to understand the selective forces that lead to the evolution of this reproductive strategy. In my research, I combine theoretical and empirical approaches to explore this phenomenon by developing models that predict birthing modes and examining how reproductive strategies vary among and within lizard populations in the wild.
From the theoretical side, in my recent study published in Evolution Letters, I developed a model that accurately predicts the gestation length of lizards, marking a step towards formalizing the mechanisms that lead to the evolution of viviparity.
Two female western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis). The one on the left just laid eggs, but the one on the right would lay eggs the following day.
I use a portable ultrasound scanner in the field to assess the presence, number, and size of the embryos a female carries, and through multiple scans, gestation length.
Novel methods to map thermal environments
Novel methods to map thermal environments
A fundamental goal of thermal ecology is to characterize thermal environments at a scale relevant to the organism of interest (i.e., a few meters rather than kilometers). To accomplish this, I developed the R package throne, now published in Methods in Ecology & Evolution, which allows for combining data from operative temperature models (see my publication on how to 3D print highly accurate, cost-effective models) with data from aerial thermal imagery. Using throne, we can now produce fine-scale (down to 0.5 m2), spatio-temporally complete operative thermal maps.
Scroll to see (1) a predicted operative thermal landscape produced using my R package throne, (2) a lizard sitting on a 3D printed operative temperature model.
Thermal performance curves (TPCs) relate body temperature to organismal performance and can be described by traits such as the thermal optimum (Topt) or the critical thermal limits (CTmin and CTmax). These traits may be genetically correlated, limiting the range of TPC shapes that can exist in populations. In my research, I examined how the presence and nature of these correlations influence a population's ability to withstand warmer and more thermally variable climates.
Constraints on organismal responses to climate change
Constraints on organismal responses to climate change
To withstand climate change, organisms have three options: move (in time and/or space), adapt (through plasticity), or evolve (through natural selection). For organisms that can't move, plasticity and evolution seem to be promising options. However, little is known about how constrained these responses are and, thus, whether they will be effective in the long run. During my PhD, I explored how genetic correlations (a type of evolutionary constraint) between traits characterizing thermal reaction norms might limit adaptation to warming and more variable environments (see my 2023 Ecology Letters paper). Now, I am also working to understand whether plasticity is limited and whether it is even favored in ectotherms living at high latitudes.
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