Physiological Adaptations in Animals

Syllabus

• Fall 2009 BIOL 5310
• Fall 2009 MARB 6310

Course Readings

August 26th

• The stress response in fish
• Stress in fishes
• Stress response ontogeny in chinook salmon
• Stress response ontogeny in yellow perch

September 2nd

• The evolutionary and ecological role of HSPs
• Thermal resistance, development and HSPs in Artemia
• HSP responses in bay and sea scallops
• Patterns of HSP expression in marine ectotherms
• Metabolism and thermoregulation in the springhare

September 9th

• Mapping the fundamental niche
• Thermal stress on intertidal limpets
• Supercool or dehydrate?
• Mitochondrial oxyconformity and cold adaptation
• Psychrophilic enzymes: molecular basis of cold adaptation

September 16th

• Rearing temperature and sex ratio
• Temperature-dependent sex determination
• Temperature and hemocyanin oxygen binding
• Climate change and temperature-dependent biogeography
• Fundamental physiological niche of young estuarine fishes

September 23rd

• Metabolism and survival of medusae in estuarine hypoxia
• Protein expression patterns in zebrafish skeletal muscle
• Caribbean crustaceans in hypoxic and anoxic zones
• Molecular basis of high-altitude adaptation
• High altitude reduced oxygen limits size

September 30th

• Hemoglobin function in high-altitude mammals
• Octopus growth: patterns, variability and physiology
• Salinity and growth and survival of juvenile pinfish
• The renin-angiotensin system of silver sea bream
• Salinity tolerance of the guppy

October 7th

• Salinity changes in haemolymph osmolality in mud crabs
• Water budgets and reproduction in spiny mice
• Temperature influences on feeding in whitethroat woodrats
• Seasonal acclimation in water balance in free-living degus
• Heterothermy and water in free-living Arabian oryx

October 14th

• Thermal and osmotic stress in sea cucumbers
• Environmental hypercapnia and salinity and NaH exchange
• Larval southern flounder osmolality and salinity
• Salinity effects on osmoregulation and growth of flounder
• Feeding and osmoregulation in marine teleost intestine

October 21st

• Salinity and food intake and selection in European sea bass
• Seasonal changes in food intake in woodchucks
• Role of energy availability in hibernating eastern chipmunks
• Maintaining muscle mass during extended disuse
• Loss of circadian organization of sleep and wakefulness

October 28th

• Fungal disease resistance in sea fan coral
• Chemical resistance of sea fan coral to fungal disease
• Immunological competence of eastern oysters
• Ocean acidification: the other CO2 problem
• Physiological effects on fishes in a high-CO2 world

November 4th

• Temperature extremes, hypoxia and increased CO2 and marine animals
• Possible effects of ocean acidification on coral reef biogeochemistry
• Effects of CO2-driven ocean acidification on the early developmental stages of invertebrates
• Effects of high CO2 on a copepod
• Effects of CO2 on marine fish

November 11th

• Influence of CO2 and temperature on edible crabs
• CO2 ocean disposal and deep-sea animals
• Long-term hypercapnia and acid-base balance in mussels
• Cod recruitment, climate change and stock biomass
• Climate change and management of North Sea cod

November 18th

• Climate change and marine and estuarine fishes and fisheries
• Trophic cascades triggered by overfishing
• Rate of metabolism in marine animals
• Eel migration to the Sargasso
• High olfactory sensitivity in harbour seals

December 2nd

• Foraging behaviour of freely diving mammals
• Temperature resistance of a deep-sea vent annelid
• Cheetahs of the deep sea: foraging springs in pilot whales
• Comparison of photophores of two deep-sea fishes
• Feeding adaptations of a deep-sea amphipod

Grant Information

Website with links to the solicitation, to the Grants.gov Application Guide, and to the Grant Proposal guide:

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=10676

If this link does not work, go to www.nsf.gov, hit the search for funding opportunities link, and search for NSF 07-560

Fall 2009 Office Hours: Tuesday, 3-5 pm

Office location: HRI 118

To make an appointment outside of office hours: x3489 or rebekah.thomas@tamucc.edu