In my lab, we combine field research with laboratory manipulations and even experimental evolution to address interesting questions at the interface of ecology, physiology, and evolution. Currently research in the lab builds from two main topics (see the Research page for more details).
Physiological ecology of High-altitude
Altitudinal gradients provide really nice natural experiments in organism physiology and ecology. We are interested in why some organisms do so well in these harsh environments and how they do it.
Climate and organism physiology
I am very interested in how organism physiology interacts with climate to determine large-scale patterns of abundance and diversity. We use both modeling and experimental approaches to address these questions.
Prospective students
I am always looking for good students. If you are interested in joining the lab, please email me and we'll go from there.
News
April 5, 2011
Jessica was awarded a Wyoming EPSCoR undergraduate research fellowship to study allometric scaling of bumblebee tracheal systems! (See beautiful SEM of pronotal lobe to right).
April 2, 2011
We've been awarded a grant from the UW-NPS Research Station to study body size clines and diversity of bees in Grant Teton National Park. (This means that we get to catch bees in one of the most spectacular places on earth)!
April 1, 2011
Christy managed to get her statistics joke on NPR's Science Friday April Fool's Science Comedy Geek-a-thon. Her joke is at 28:30 (but the rest is entertaining too). Way to go Christy!
March 28, 2011
Olivia Nater joined the lab and experienced Wyoming "spring" ... it snowed her first night! Welcome, Olivia!
December 1, 2010
Our methodology for studying flight performance of orchid bees has been put to good use by MythBusters! In their December 1 Bug Special, Adam and Jamie bust the myth that a swarm of honeybees can lift a laptop (propagated by this popular video). They use our load-lifting methodology (Dillon and Dudley, 2004) to estimate how much an individual honey bee can lift, then extrapolate to suggest the feat is impossible (of course, there are a number of behavioral and aerodynamic reasons why the myth should be busted as well--but it makes for good TV!)
October 6, 2010
Check out our recent paper in Nature: Global
metabolic impacts of recent climate warming
Michael
E. Dillon, George Wang, and Raymond B. Huey. Nature 467, 704-706.
Among other places, it was featured on Science News, Voice of America, Our World (aired the weekend of 16 Oct.), Discovery Channel Daily Planet (Oct 6 show), Climate Wire, ig.com.br, and Science Daily.