Research Areas
Visual Ecology of Marine Invertebrates
The visual systems of animals vary in form and function, so different species may perceive similar surroundings in dissimilar ways. Thus, characterizing the spatial resolutions, spectral responses, and temporal dynamics of visual systems will help identify the visual cues that influence how animals detect predators and prey, hide themselves from detection, and navigate through their environments. We study the visual ecology of shallow-water marine invertebrates including a variety of molluscs and crustaceans.
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Neurobiology of Distributed Vision
Most research on visual processing has been conducted on animals that have a pair of eyes on their head, but we have much to learn from visual systems that deviate from this familiar arrangement by incorporating dozens to hundreds of separate image-forming eyes. We are studying distributed visual systems to learn how animals with simple nervous systems integrate and process the images gathered by their many separate eyes. In particular, we study the neurobiology of many-eyed molluscs such as scallops and chitons.
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Evolution of Complex Physiological Traits
A challenge to understanding how complex traits evolve is that these traits are often studied separately, despite evolving in organismal contexts in which their functions are inextricably linked. Thus, studying functional relationships between complex traits is necessary if we are to understand how organisms evolve as integrated wholes rather than collections of disparate parts. To address this challenge, we are studying how complex physiological traits -- such as vision and locomotion -- co-evolve in molluscs and crustaceans.
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