My interests are broad and diverse, spanning the fields of animal behavior, ecology, evolution, physiology, and genetics. Where much of the field of Biology has become focused at the cellular and sub-cellular levels, I remain an organismal person and prefer to answer questions pertaining to the whole animal, populations, and communities. Nevertheless, there are a few topics that stand out as more interesting than others, and while my interests dynamic, these are some hot topics that are currently on my mind:
The Evolution of Domestication
One problem that has been relevant and unresolved for half a century deals with the process of domestication and its effects on wild populations. Salmonids and other commercial fish species have been raised commercially in hatcheries for over a century. Captive spawning and culture of salmonids can bring about rapid changes in phenotypes due to the inherent artificial selection imposed upon them. Some of this selection is deliberate, such as high growth rates and large body size in farmed Atlantic Salmon, and some of this selection is an unconscious byproduct of our breeding methods. When the captive-bred fish are released into the wild, they interact with the native wild populations. There is still a debate as to the the effects and the scope of the effects of the interactions between wild and domestic populations. Using selective breeding studies, I hope to investigate the evolutionary process of domestication as well as the evolutionary and ecological impacts releasing domestic populations into the wild may have on the wild populations. Due to the long generation time and habitat requirements of Salmonids, these questions may be more easily approached with a smaller model with a quicker development time such as the Zebrafish, Danio rerio.
The Ecology and Natural History of the Zebrafish, Danio rerio.
Danio rerio has become a valuable tool to study the relationship between developmental biology, genetics and physiology because it shares many genes and physiological responses with that of humans and other higher vertebrates. It is also becoming clear that this species can make a good model to study the relationship between genetics and behavior to solve some evolutionary problems. The species makes a great genetic tool because we know so much about its genome and many well-studied strains are available for immediate use. However, we know very little about the life of Zebrafish in the wild. Several studies in the last 10 years have attempted to survey the wild Zebrafish habitat and habits, but these studies only scratch the surface. I am very much interested in surveying populations of Zebrafish to get an idea of the natural genetic and phenotypic variation to build an ecological profile and a natural history for the species. By collecting specimen from diverging populations, we may gain insight to whether certain populations, rather than whole species, are suitable for domestication. And in the world of pharmacogenetics, variation in phenotypes across populations may impact the usefulness of drug development and testing studies.
Home Ranges, Movement, Migration, and Species Ranges
One of the questions that has always intrigued me is the one addressing how a species got to be where it is and why. What defines an individual’s home range, and what events cause individuals to expand or move out of their territory? Why do individuals of migrating species return to the same territory year after year? How do they find their home territory, and what happens if during the course of migration, they get lost? How do some species expand their range to cover a wide range of habitat variation, while others remain specialists? The concepts of spatial distribution, range, and habitat usage has been on my mind and are questions that may induce valuable concerns in the use of domestic breeding programs to mitigate population loss in dwindling species. By comparing historical ranges to the present, we can build models that might predict the future of a species in the wake of climate change, habitat destruction, or other changes that may disrupt the status quo.