CHRISTOPHER MARTIN
Ph.D. student, Graduate Group in Population Biology, University of California, Davis (2007-present)
B.S., Biology, Duke University (2005)
Research interests:
I am broadly interested in the evolution and ecology of adaptive radiations, particularly in fishes. Specifically, I aim to understand how ecological context relates to the generation of functional innovations and niche space.
Several recent publications:
Martin CH, Genner MJ. in review. A new role for an extended phenotypic trait, the bower, in male-male competition in a Lake Malawi cichlid fish. Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Martin CH, Johnsen S. 2007. A field test of the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis in the guppy Poecilia reticulata. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
Yang AS, Martin CH, Nijhout HF. 2004. Geographic variation of caste structure among ant populations. Current Biology 14: 514-519.
For more information about Chris's research, check out his CV or contact him at chmartin@ucdavis.edu.
ROSE L. CARLSON
Ph.D. student, Graduate Group in Population Biology, University of California, Davis (2002-present)
B.A., Biological Sciences, Cornell University (2002)
Research interests:
My dissertation research seeks to understand why groups of organisms differ in the diversity of forms that they exhibit. I am particularly interested in the effects of species interactions at large and small scales on the evolution of morphological diversity. I recently found a relationship between morphological diversity and sympatry on a small geographic scale (micro-sympatry). I use a species rich lineage of North American freshwater fishes known as darters (Teleostei: Percidae) as my study system. Darters provide an ideal study system for my research for three reasons: first, a fully resolved molecular phylogeny is available; second, the seven radiations or clades that make up the darter lineage provide equivalent replicate sampling units; and third, darters are remarkably diverse in both morphology and ecology making them intuitively interesting to inquisitive evolutionary biologists such as myself.
Several recent publications:
Carlson, R.L. in press. Morphological change in the Tessellated Darter (Etheostoma olmstedi) following the introduction of the Banded Darter (E. zonale) to the Susquehanna River drainage. Copeia.
Carlson, R.L., M.J. Shulman, & J.C. Ellis. 2006. Factors contributing to spatial heterogeneity in the abundance of the common periwinkle Littorina littorea (L.). Journal of Molluscan Studies 72: 149-156.
For more information about Rose's research, visit her web site or contact her at rlcarlson@ucdavis.edu.
DAN WARREN
Ph.D. student, Graduate Group in Population Biology, University of California, Davis (2003-present)
B.S., Biology, The University of Oklahoma and Florida State University (FSU: 2003).
Research interests:
I'm interested in the evolution, diversification, and distributions of marine fish species. I am also interested in developing analytical methods and computational tools for answering evolutionary and ecological questions.
Several recent publications
Brandley, M.C., Leaché, A.D., Warren, D.L., & J.A. McGuire. in press. Are unequal clade priors problematic for Bayesian phylogenetics? Systematic Biology.
Wilgenbusch J.C., Warren D.L., & D.L. Swofford. 2004. AWTY: A system for graphical exploration of MCMC convergence in Bayesian phylogenetic inference. Available at http://ceb.csit.fsu.edu/awty.
Warren, D.L., J. Wilgenbusch, and D.L. Swofford. 2003. Converge: a program for implementing MCMC convergence diagnostics. Available from the authors at danwarren@ucdavis.edu.
For more information about Dan's research, contact him at danwarren@ucdavis.edu.
RITA MEHTA
Postdoctoral researcher, Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis (June 2005-present)
Ph.D., University of Tennessee (May 2005)
M.S., University of Texas (2001)
B.A., University of California, Berkeley (1999)
My research focuses on the evolution of feeding behaviors in elongate vertebrates. I am specifically interested in the evolution of morphological and behavioral innovations related to feeding. For my doctoral research, I studied constriction behavior, a key behavioral innovation in snake evolution. I examined how constriction behavior varies across taxa and whether the muscle activity patterns during constriction are congruent with the variation observed at the behavioral level. More recently, I have been examining the feeding kinematics of Echidna nebulosa, the snowflake eel (above).
Several recent publications:
Mehta, R. S. and P. C. Wainwright. 2007. Raptorial pharyngeal jaws help moray eels swallow large prey. Nature 449:79-82. The article is available here.
For more information about Rita's research, visit her web site or contact her at rsmehta@ucdavis.edu.
ROI HOLZMAN
Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellow, Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis (June 2006-present)
Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem (expected Sept 2006)
M.Sc., Hebrew University of Jerusalem (June 2002)
B.A., Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1998)
Research interests:
My research focuses on the forces exerted by suction feeding fishes on their prey, and on the ways fish modulate that force. Using the force exerted on the prey as a merit of suction performance, I try to understand the mechanical diversity in fishes, using the Centrarchidae as a model group.
In suction feeding fish, the rapid expansion of the buccal cavity produces high fluid velocities and accelerations that persist only a short distance from the mouth, and for a short time (a few ms). Therefore, the predator must carefully time its strike to maximize the forces exerted on its prey. This unique property of suction feeding can be used to look at the importance of force exertion in the feeding sequence, and to link suction feeding function with jaw morphology, visual acuity, and other traits.
In my doctoral research, conducted at the InterUniversity Institute in Eilat, Israel, I studied predator-prey interaction between nocturnal fish and their zooplankton prey. Specific areas studied included the effects of environmental factors on feeding rates of a nocturnal reef fish (limnology & oceanography 48:1367-1375), the mechanisms responsible for the observed selectivity for large prey (Oecologia 146:329-336) and the visual capabilities of a nocturnal reef fish, with specific focus on visual accommodation during prey capture (Vision Research, 46:2094-2101). Using stereoscopic underwater camera system I quantified, for the first time, the density distribution of nocturnal fishes in a coral reef (MEPS 342: 205–215). Overall, my dissertation improved the understanding of the perceptual abilities of nocturnal fish, lends insights into the ecological interactions with its prey and help determining the response of the population to environmental conditions.
Several recent publications:
Wainwright, P.C, A.M. Carroll, D.C. Collar, S.W Day, T.E. Higham and R. Holzman. (2007) Suction feeding mechanics, performance and diversity in fishes. Integrative and Comparative Biology 47: 96-106
Kiflawi, M. J. Belmaker, E. Brokovich S. Einbinder and R. Holzman. (2007) Diversity, diversification and sampling effects: Comment. Ecology 88: 2132–2135.
Holzman, R. M. Ohavia, R. Vaaknin and A. Genin. (2007) The abundance and distribution of nocturnal fishes over a coral reef during the night. Marine Ecology Progress Series 342: 205–215.
Holzman, R., S.W. Day and P.C. Wainwright. (in press) Timing is everything: coordination of strike kinematics affects the force exerted by suction feeding fish on attached prey. Journal of Experimental Biology.
For more information about Roi's research, visit his web site or contact him at raholzman@ucdavis.edu.
KRISTIN BISHOP
Postdoctoral Researcher, Section of Ecology and Evolution, University of California, Davis (January 1, 2007 – present)
Ph.D., Brown University, July 2006
B.S., University of Washington, 1994
Research interests:
Animal physiology and biomechanics have provided deep insights into how the major functional systems operate. We understand much about how animals swim, fly, run, breathe, and eat. But while the mechanics and energetics of each behavior may have common mechanisms that are broadly applicable across animal species, a major goal in functional morphology is to understand how diversity in structure leads to diversity in function in each of these systems. One way to organize this effort is to focus on the consequences that morphological and functional diversity has on organismal performance – or the ability of animals to perform these crucial tasks in their day-to-day life. My research focuses on broad questions about the relationship between morphological diversity and variation in the performance of specific tasks and how functional changes resulting from these differences drive evolutionary patterns.
Suction feeding, in which rapid expansion of the oral cavity creates a flow of water into the mouth that draws in food items, is a common feeding method in fish. Despite the fact that almost all fishes use suction feeding, there is a surprising amount of diversity in feeding morphology that appears to result in variation in the mechanics of feeding behavior and patterns of prey use. At least two features of the flow of water generated by suction feeders external to their mouth are likely to be particularly important in determining the success of a feeding attempt: high fluid speed and large volume flow rate. Interestingly, there may be a trade-off among species between fluid speed and the volume of water that is displaced during suction feeding. In my research, I am working to better understand the morphological and kinematic basis for this tradeoff in species of fish that use these different feeding strategies. Detailed information about the time course of shape changes in the skull during feeding combined with characterization of the resulting flow field around the mouth will allow more precise modeling of the mechanics of oral expansion, which will allow investigation of the performance consequences of diversity in feeding morphology and kinematics.
Several recent publications:
Bishop, K.L. in review. Aerodynamic force production and stability during gliding in the sugar glider, Petaurus breviceps.
Galvao, R., Israeli, E., Song, A., Tian, X., Bishop, K., Swartz, S. and Breuer, K.S. The aerodynamics of compliant membrane wings modeled on mammalian flight. AIAA Paper 2006-2866. San Francisco, CA. June 2006.
Bishop, K.L. 2006. The relationship between 3-D kinematics and gliding performance in the southern flying squirrel, Glaucomys volans. J. Exp. Biol. 209: 689-701.
For more information about Kristin's research, contact here at kvwbishop@ucdavis.edu.
MATTHEW MCGEE
Ph.D. student, Graduate Group in Population Biology, University of California, Davis (2007-present)
Research interests:
I am interested in vertebrate developmental plasticity, specation, and the relationship of intraspecific morphological diversity to interspecific morphological diversity. I plan to use a combination of phylogenetics, fieldwork, and laboratory experimentation to examine the impact of developmental plasticity on the evolution and radiation of teleost fishes.
For more information about Matt's research, contact him at mcgee@ucdavis.edu.
