My laboratory is dedicated to the study of aquatic
biological diversity and the processes that create it (speciation), destroy
it (extinction), and maintain it (conservation biology). My preferred models
are the labroids (damselfishes, cichlids, surfperches, and wrasses), a very
species-rich group that includes a large proportion of the world's lake, reef,
and river fishes. The specific question that most fascinates me is why some
organisms are more adaptable than others, and how this relates to the ways
that they evolve and interact with each other.
My lab is involved in two lines of basic research.
First is the study of evolution in fish species flocks in the Great Lakes
of East Africa, with a special focus on Lake Victoria. This research includes
biotic surveys of the headwaters of the White Nile, and laboratory studies
of the morphology, ecology, and genetics of haplochromine cichlids. These
are the fastest-evolving, and most rapidly disappearing fishes on earth. Second
is a comparative study of skeletal plasticity in wild fishes, and the use
of fishes as laboratory models for the study of human bone disease. Collectively,
these studies employ a variety of methods, including morphometric and computer-image
analysis, comparative anatomy, kinematics, histochemistry, field exploration
and sampling, systematics, and studies of fish behavior in the laboratory.
The goal of applied research in our laboratory is to develop
the science necessary for the conservation of aquatic biological diversity
and fishery resources. Currently, we are working on ways to preserve and restore
the indigenous species of tropical lakes and coral reefs. Though these systems
are geographically and environmentally disparate, the human factors in all
of them are very similar, chiefly eutrophication, overexploitation, and xenobiotics.
Understanding the early life history of fishes is of universal importance
in fish conservation. Current projects include studies of the demographics
of nursery areas in the Georges Bank fishery and investigations on ecology
of recruitment in tropical and temperate reef fishes.
