I primarily study topics relating to visual ecology. In my recent dissertation work at Duke University, I studied the roles of color and vision in sexual signaling in the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus.
As a postdoc supported through the Peter Buck Fellowship program, I will be studying how vision physiology, optical environment, and ecological associations shape visual adaptations in hyperiid amphipods. Hyperiid amphipods are small crustacean invertebrates that are abundant from the surface down to the deepest depths of the oceans, with particular abundance in the twilight zone (200-1000 m). At twilight zone depths, available light is limited to increasingly dim and blue down-welling light and bioluminescence. In this zone, the competition to see and not be seen is a matter of life or death. As a result, hyperiids have huge variation in the shapes and function of their eyes, likely an evolutionary response to the complexities of the midwater optical environment.
Generally, hyperiids have two pairs of apposition compound eyes, a dorsal set and a lateral set. In some hyperiids the dorsal eyes are greatly enlarged and cover the entire head. In others fiber optic cables connect the lenses to the retinas or they have cone shaped retinas that allow a 360º field of view. Still others have retinas with mirrors that boost light collection. I will study the visual adaptations of hyperiids to life in the deep sea by examining the morphology, physiology, and behavior of various species spanning the depth distribution of the group. The results from these combined studies will be used in two ways. 1) the optical habitat and visual capabilities of hyperiid species will be modeled to examine the ecological advantages of varied visual adaptations. And 2) visual characteristics will be mapped onto a recently completed reconstruction of the evolutionary history of hyperiids to track adaptations to the different optical environments they experience.
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