The work done in my laboratory is focused on aspects of the physiology and ecology of invertebrate animals and their developmental stages. My research students and I are particularly interested in understanding the energetic cost of development, role of dissolved organic materials as a nutritional source for developing invertebrates, and variation in maternal contribution to offspring among groups. Our study material ranges from local freshwater species to marine forms collected in Antarctica, the tropics, and the deep-sea.
Articles
Size and Organic Content of Eggs of Marine Annelids, and the Underestimation of Egg Energy Content by Dichromate Oxidation (with Bruno Pernet), Biological Bulletin (2004)
Dichromate oxidation is a simple technique that is often used to estimate the energy content...
Variability in broods of the seastar Leptasterias aequalis (with Brian L. Bingham and Kehaulani Giles), Canadian Journal of Zoology (2004)
Enormous variation exists in the reproductive output of marine invertebrates (e.g., in the numbers of...
Identification of asteroid genera with species capable of larval cloning (with K. E. Knott and E. J. Balser), Biological Bulletin (2003)
Asexual reproduction in larvae, larval cloning, is a recently recognized component of the complex life...
A Long Way From Home: Transatlantic Sea Star Migration (with Paul Kehle), Consortium (2002)
For a marine biologist strolling along the eastern coast of South America, finding some sea...
The Potential for Ontogenetic Vertical Migration by Larvae of Bathyal Echinoderms (with Craig M. Young, Michael G. Devin, Suki U.K. Ekaratne, and Sophie B. George), Oceanologica Acta (1996)
Planktotrophy is a relatively common developmental mode among bathyal and abyssal echinoderms, but the sources...
Contributions to Books
Phylum Echinodermata: Asteroidea (with L. R. McEdward and M. Komatsu), Atlas of Marine Invertebrate Larvae (2001)
Variation in the Size, Energy Content, and Biochemical Composition of Invertebrate Eggs: Correlates to the Mode of Larval Development, Ecology of Marine Invertebrate Larvae (1995)
Implications of dissolved organic material in seawater for the energetics of abalone larvae Haliotis rufescens: a review (with Donal Manahan), Abalone of the World: Biology, Fisheries and Culture (1992)
This volume contains papers presented at the First International Symposium on Abalone Biology, Fisheries and...
Presentations
Seawater flow into the digestive system of actinotroch larvae (Phoronida), Annual Meeting for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Jan. 3-7 (2013)
Actinotroch larva (Phoronida) concentrate and collect food particles during their planktonic existance. Reported mechanisms of...
Coelomogenesis and Nutrition of Clonally Produced Asteroid Larvae, North American Echinoderm Conference (2008)
Asexual reproduction by planktotrophic larvae of asteroids is an unusual life history strategy exhibited by...
Distribution of Bipinnaria and Pilidium in Relation to Physical Structure and UV-B Light in the Water Column off Anvers Island, Antarctica (with Deneb Karentz), North American Echinoderm Conference (2008)
Feeding larvae of Antarctic bottom invertebrates have proven to be scarce in the plankton and...
Variation in alanine transport among sibling lecithotrophic larvae of holothuroid and asteroid echinoderms, Ninth International Echinoderm Conference (1996)
Variation in development rate (e.g., time to metamorphic competence) among sibling larvae has been reported,...
Faculty Advisor of Student Research
An Adapted Method for Measuring Gas Exchange Across Avian Eggshells (2012)
Gas exchange through the pores of bird eggshells is necessary for normal embryonic development. Differences...
COMPARISON OF REGIONAL EGGSHELL POROSITY BETWEEN THE BROOD PARASITIC BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD (MOLUTHRUS ATER) AND ITS HOSTS: THE DICKCISSEL (SPIZA AMERICANA), AND TWO NON-PARASITIC RELATIVES, THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD (AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS) AND THE COMMON GRACKLE (QUISCALUS QUISCULA) (with Brittany Childs '12, M. Kiefer, J.W. Rivers, and B.D. Peer) (2012)
The Brown-headed Cowbird is a generalist brood parasite that lays eggs in the nests of...
Maternal Investment in Physa acuta (2012)
In oviparous reproduction there is a proposed relationship between maternal resources allocated to each egg...
Metabolic Contribution of Particulate Matter (<μm) for Larvae of Lytechinus variegatus (2012)
Echinoderm larvae possess an external band of cilia that beat in one direction for locomotion...
Evaluation of DOM Uptake by Spionid Polychaete Larvae from Antarctica (2011)
Thorson (1946, 1950) hypothesized that polar invertebrate species avoid a pelagic larval phase and instead...