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Karla Alujevic (postdoc) For my PhD, I studied the evolution of complex phenotypes in wild populations and the mechanisms that organisms use to respond to changing environments. For my postdoc, I am using a large-scale transplant experiment in The Bahamas to understand how changes in thermal landscapes mediate the evolution of thermoregulatory behavior.
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Samantha Fontaine (postdoc)
For my PhD work, I explored relationships between amphibians, their gut microbiota, and the thermal environment. I studied how increasing environmental temperatures impacted the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome in salamanders and tadpoles. I additionally focused on how the composition of the tadpole gut microbiome impacted the host's thermal tolerance and found that harboring a diverse microbiome can buffer hosts from heat stress. For my NSF PRFB, I am studying how gut microbes affect the plasticity of heat tolerance in anole lizards, and if colonization with specific microbes influences their fitness in the field when faced with changing environmental conditions.
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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.
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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.
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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 will explore 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.
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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!
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Alexis George (undergrad)
Lex is analyzing thousands of digital scans of slender anole scales to understand how scale densities may have evolved on our experimental islands in Panama. Her early analyses are intriguing and suggest that scale densities have rapidly evolved on the warmer, drier islands in such a way that might reduce cutaneous water loss in island populations. Lex is working in collaboration with lab graduate student Claire Williams on this project.
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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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Kaitlyn Napier (undergrad)
Kaitlin is conducting both field and laboratory research on the evolutionary drivers and ecological functions of ventral coloration in western fence lizards. She is conducting this research in collaboration with Gillian Moritz (UNR medical school), and with lab graduate students Guillermo Garcia-Costoya, Akhila Gopal, and Noa Ratia. Kaitlyn's research is funded by a Nevada Undergraduate Research Award.
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Madison Glenwinkel (undergrad)
Madison is conducting both field and lab work to understand the role of parasitism in western fence lizard ecology and evolution. She is conducting this research in collaboration with lab members Karla Alujevic, Guillermo Garcia-Costoya, Akhila Gopal, and Noa Ratia. Madison's research is funded by a Nevada Undergraduate Research Award.
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Cody Chapman (undergrad)
Cody has been working 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. He is collaborating with lab members Guillermo Garcia-Costoya and Noa Ratia.
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Emma Schmitz (undergrad)
Emma worked on a project aimed at understanding morphological evolution in slender anoles in Panama, and is now working on processing and analyzing drone imagery from our field sites in Nevada. She is collaborating with lab members Claire Williams and Noa Ratia.
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Shea McKendree (undergrad)
She has been helping with our fence lizard project in both the lab and the field.
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Former Lab Members
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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.
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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 when he was in the lab. Colton is now a field biologist working for WestLand Resources (an engineering and environmental services consulting firm).
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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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