Current Projects

Garden State Crayfish Survey

One of the challenges of doing ecological research is that you must find populations of animals to study. When I moved to TCNJ, I discovered that the distributional data for crayfish in New Jersey were in need of updating. There are excellent historical records, but these data do not reflect changes in the landscape and introduction of exotic species over the past half century. In addition to seeking populations that will provide animals for lab and field experiments, we are slowly documenting the occurrence of crayfish throughout the state. This project was the focus of my efforts during summer 2008, and a video was made about this work as part of the MUSE program. To view the video in a new browser window, click here.

Behavioral Responses to Chemical Stimuli

A large body of literature exists for the study of chemical signals in relation to resource acquisition and predation avoidance. Some of our recent work has addressed questions about the factors influencing behavioral tradeoffs in the presence of multiple stimuli (e.g., food cues vs. risk cues, sex pheromones vs. risk cues, sex pheromones vs. food cues). We are currently contrasting behavioral responses to chemical stimuli between native and exotic species.

Hydrodynamics and Chemical Ecology

A potentially important influence on the use of chemical stimuli is variation in the medium through which those signals travel. We are presently examining the effects of hydrodynamic variation on search behaviors in several crayfish species. Our goal is to contrast performance in a variety of flowing water habitats among native and exotic species in an effort to help explain biological invasions.