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Mike Logan (PI) My lab studies the ways in which organisms adapt to rapid changes in their environments. We address our research questions from many angles and integrate methods from a diversity of fields including ecology, evolution, physiology, genomics, and animal behavior.
Contact: [email protected] |
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Akhila Gopal (PhD student) During my Master’s at Tulane University, I developed a project looking at the influence of soil lead contamination on behavior in two species of anoles in New Orleans. For my Ph.D., I am investigating the Pace of Life Syndrome (POLS) using western fence lizards in the Great Basin. I aim to understand how behavior, life-history, metabolism, and thermal physiology covary and contribute to fitness at the population and inter-individual levels.
Contact: [email protected] |
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Guillermo Garcia-Costoya (PhD student) My research integrates theoretical, simulation-based studies with empirical data to understand how life history tradeoffs might mediate ectotherm responses to climate change. For my PhD, I am using the (absolutely awesome) western fence lizard as a model species. Together with others in the lab, I am conducting a multi-year mark-recapture study on two populations of these lizards across an elevational gradient in the Great Basin Desert. I am exploring how territory-level differences in thermal environments mediate differences in reproductive strategies, affect intra and inter-specific competition, and structure fitness landscapes. My ultimate goal is to use what we find about how lizards deal with their environment in the present to inform models that are better able to predict how they might respond to changing climates.
Contact: [email protected] |
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Claire Williams (PhD student) I have worked on microbiomes in a variety of contexts--during my undergraduate studies I cultured previously unknown bacteria from arctic soil microbiomes, searched for novel antibiotics, and studied the effects of pesticides on the microbiomes of pollinators. During my masters, I studied longitudinal microbiome dynamics in red pandas. For my PhD, I am studying the response of the gut microbiome of anoles to climate warming and how microbes may help or hinder their hosts ability to adapt to rapid environmental change.
Contact: [email protected] |
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Noa Ratia (PhD student) As an Erasmus student from Kristianstad, Sweden, I spent my masters measuring greenhouse gas fluxes in the wetlands of Doñana, Spain, through incubation of sediment cores. I am conducting my PhD work on western fence lizard populations in the Great Basin Desert, where I am interested in how microhabitats are shifting in response to climate change. I am leveraging my physics background to determine how abiotic factors such as wind, precipitation, and temperature interact to affect lizard behavior, physiology, and habitat quality. To this end, I'm utilizing a range of technologies including microcontrollers, 3D-printing, and remote sensing. I envision a lot of potential for novel technology in ecological research and I'm passionate about developing more efficient ways to gather and analyze field data, using autonomous methods and open-source hardware that ideally make research more accessible and fun!
Contact: [email protected]
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Catherine Grey (PhD student)
As an undergrad, I looked at fluctuating asymmetry and stress effects on zebra finches. I am leveraging my background in endocrinology during my PhD work, which explores the ecological drivers and physiological mechanisms linking the evolution of endocrine physiology with thermal tolerance in slender anoles in Panama.
Contact: [email protected]
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Neil Babu (undergrad)
Neil is working on a project aimed at resolving the "g-value paradox" by exploring relationships between host genome characteristics and the complexity of their microbiomes. He is conducting this research in collaboration with lab graduate students Claire Williams and Guillermo Garcia-Costoya. Neil's research is funded by a Nevada Undergraduate Research Award.
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Lab Alumni
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Kristin Charles (PhD student) Kristin worked on the evolution of parity mode in fence lizards while she was in the lab. Kristin currently works as an ecological consultant in the Las Angeles area.
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Dan Nicholson (PhD student, co-advised) Dan used experimental populations of lizards in Panama to understand adaptive responses of organisms to environmental change. He is now a postdoctoral researcher in Luke Frischkoff's lab at the University of Texas-Arlington.
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Colton Irons (undergrad) Colton worked on a project examining morphological evolution in brown anoles from The Bahamas. Colton is now a masters student studying rattlesnake and rodent habitat use in Kevin Shoemaker's lab at UNR.
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Renata Pirani (postdoc)
During Renata's postdoc in the lab, she sequenced, assembled, and annotated a reference genome for our study organism in Panama, the slender anole. She also worked out the genetic basis of the dewlap polymorphism in that species. Renata is currently a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA.
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Samir Gulati (undergrad)
While in the lab, Samir conducted research on the use of 3D-printing to build operative temperature models. Samir was also our 2022 Evolution In Action intern at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where he conducted research on lizard evolution in response to climate change and took part in a live-action science education show for kids.
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Samantha Fontaine (postdoc)
Sam conducted part of her NSF PRFB in the lab. She studied how gut microbes affect the plasticity of heat tolerance in anoles. She also worked on culturing gut microbes from the slender anole and testing the thermal sensitivity of growth rate in microbial straits adapted to our experimental islands. Sam is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Brian Trevelline's lab at Kent State University.
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Alexis George (undergrad)
Lex analyzed thousands of digital scans of slender anole scales to understand how scale densities may have evolved on our experimental islands in Panama.
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Madison Glenwinkel (undergrad)
Madison conducted both field and lab work to understand the role of parasitism in western fence lizard ecology and evolution.
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Kaitlyn Napier (undergrad)
Kaitlin conducted both field and laboratory research on the evolutionary drivers and ecological functions of ventral coloration in western fence lizards.
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Cody Chapman (undergrad)
Cody worked on several projects in the lab, including calculating lizard body temperatures from IR images, analyzing habitat structure from pictures taken in the field, and building arenas for studies of fence lizard behavior.
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Emma Schmitz (undergrad)
Emma worked on two projects in the lab. The first was on morphological evolution in slender anoles in Panama, and second was on the use of aerial thermography to map terrestrial thermal environments. Emma is now a PhD student in Christian Cox's lab at Florida International University.
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Shea McKendree (undergrad)
She worked on our fence lizard project in both the lab and the field.
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