Research Overview
Organisms are continually confronted with new challenges and understanding how populations respond to these challenges and adapt to a changing world is a central goal in ecology and evolutionary biology. Adaptations can occur in various forms, from complex behaviors, to specialized physiological structures to simple mutations that alter a protein. While adaptations usually arise to overcome a specific selective challenge, these traits can impact other aspects of phenotype, or be coopted by natural selection for other purposes (Gould and Vrba 1982). Thus, exploring adaptations and their roles across various levels of organization is fundamental to understanding natural history, species interactions and adaptive evolution. My research aims to address questions about how predators and prey interact in order to address larger ideas about their natural history, antagonistic coevolution, adaptive evolution and impacts of adaptation on populations and individuals.
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I emphasize the use of observational, experimental, field and lab-based studies to address broad questions related to predator-prey interactions. These interactions often lead to novel behavioral and physiological adaptations associated with defending against predation or, on the part of the predators, overcoming those defenses, which makes these interactions useful for addressing questions (Fig. 1), such as (1) How does the interaction between predator and prey lead to evolutionary change (i.e., adaptations)? (2) What are the physiological underpinnings associated with these adaptations? (3) What are the molecular or chemical mechanisms that underlay these adaptations?
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