June 2020

We track and monitor adult red drum movement and migration patterns in to, out of, and around St. Augustine waters via acoustic telemetry. Adult red drum are known to aggregate in northeast Florida waters, presumably for spawning, each year. Despite the economical and ecological importance of this species, the local residency patterns of these reproductively active fish, or lack thereof, is poorly known. We aim to fill in the gaps of knowledge about local fish habitat usage, as well as… Read More »MOVEMENT ECOLOGY

Animals must accurately sense their environment in order to translate them into appropriate motor behaviors. In fishes, hair cells of the lateral line system enable the ability to sense water flow during important behaviors such as catching food or escaping from predators. Our lab takes advantage of optical, genetic and electrophysiological techniques available in zebrafish to examine the organization and physiology of neurons involved in flow sensing and locomotion. Advances in zebrafish genetics allow us to use powerful techniques to… Read More »NEUROSCIENCE

We are interested in the mechanics, energetics and control of how fish swim in natural flow conditions. Fishes routinely encounter unsteady flows in nature, such as when schooling or swimming behind a rock in a stream. Our approach is to expose fish to unsteady flows found in the characterized wakes of simple objects such as cylinders. By systematically altering vortex size, spacing, and shedding frequency, we have found that fish can actually extract energy from their environment and save energy… Read More »BIOMECHANICS