Research Questions

Understanding organism responses requires understanding how the environment and an organism’s traits interact to determine population responses. However, in many cases, this is done via correlation, inferring processes from patterns instead of the opposite. The goal of my research is to open the “black box” connecting environment, traits and population responses by uncovering the precise mechanisms that lead to the patterns we observe.

Research framework Environment and traits both feed into a black box that produces a population response. A dashed arrow labelled adaptation loops from the population response back to traits. Environment Traits ? Populationresponse Adaptation

In this overall framework, my research aims to answer three fundamental questions:

How do organisms adapt to their thermal environments?

Temperature is a critical part of an organism’s abiotic environment, particularly for ectotherms such as lizards, whose body temperature depends on their surroundings. Organisms employ an array of strategies to adapt to their thermal environments. Past research has focused mostly on physiology; I focus on the roles of behavior and life history. Doing this well also requires characterizing the environments organisms actually experience, which I do using biophysical models.

Inside the black box: thermal adaptation The black box opens to reveal the mechanisms linking environment and traits to population responses. Environment shapes the microclimate, which shapes physiological state. Behavior and traits also feed into physiological state, which determines the population response. Microclimate Behavior Physiologicalstate ? Environment Traits Populationresponse
Behavior beyond physiological limits
How behavioral innovation allowed green anoles to expand their range poleward, beyond what their physiology would predict.
Anolis lizardsBiophysical modeling
The evolution of live birth in lizards
Why have lizards evolved live birth more than 70 times? A process-based model linking temperature, behavior and life history to gestation length.
OtherBiophysical modeling
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How do individual responses scale up to populations?

Populations respond to change through what happens to the individuals in them. By following marked lizards in the wild and mapping the temperatures they experience, I link individual energy budgets to survival, natural selection and population-level responses.

The cost-of-living squeeze
How thermal environments and food availability shape energy budgets and natural selection on metabolism in wild lizards.
Western fence lizardsMark–recaptureThermal mappingBiophysical modeling
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Can organisms evolve fast enough to keep up with changing climates?

Whether organisms can adapt to warming depends on the evolutionary constraints and options available to them. I build theoretical models to ask how genetic correlations among thermal traits and thermal plasticity shape the pace and limits of adaptation.

Evolutionary constraints on thermal performance
How genetic correlations among thermal performance traits limit adaptation to warmer and more variable climates.
OtherTheoretical models
The paradox of plasticity
When should thermal plasticity evolve, and does it actually help ectotherms cope with variable climates?
OtherTheoretical models
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