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 | Biography |  |
Evolutionary macrophysiology I am interested in describing and understanding the causes and consequences of broad-scale variation in the physiology of animals. My research encompasses a range of spatial scales from global (e.g. basal metabolism of birds and gas exchange in insects), to intermediate (e.g. energy expenditure of cormorants that roam throughout Greenland), and local (e.g. visual function in fish from creeks that vary in tannin content and water colour).
Members of the macrophysiology lab work on a range of species, which are usually selected according to the August Krogh principle "For many problems there is an animal on which it can be most conveniently studied". Thus, research has been undertaken with scorpions, mole crickets, scarab beetles, air-breathing fish, crocodiles, hopping mice, wombats, flamingoes, geese, and cormorants, among others. Present work encompasses three main themes:
- The evolution of periodic ventilation in insects
- Macrophysiological and allometric variation in the energy expenditure of animals
- Visual ecophysiology at the air/water interface: acuity, spectral sensitivity and visual ecology of fish and piscivorous birds
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