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My interests are to understand how integration of multiple functions
influencesorganism performances. I do this from quantitative analyses
of cycles of behavior by animals that shuttle between patches containing
two required resources. The rate of gain and amount of one resource
influences time and resource use for travel and to obtain the other
resource (usually food) before the animal must return to replenish
the other. Examples include diving, basking by ectotherms like lizards,
intermittent egg incubation by small birds, burrow use for cooling
by desert animals, intermittent brooding of young by small birds,
territorial defense, drinking by desert animals at water holes,
and feeding for mating. We currently study heat exchange for foraging
animals because temperature is the easiest to measure precisely.
There is an optimum temperature to leave a heating or cooling patch
to maximize performance at a feeding patch. The optimum varies with
travel time and heat exchange variables. We use variations in quantitative
predictions for experimental tests. Predictions differ from those
used by physiologists to explain temperature control. There also
is an optimum time to spend at a food patch that differs from predictions
by ecologists who do not consider constraints produced by heat gains
at a heating patch. An integrated study of both resources seems
necessary to understand variation in either.
For
more details and selected publications on the different aspects
of my research program, follow these links:
Undergraduate
students: Please click here for information about research opportunities
in my lab.
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