Research in environmental physiology explores how cells and physiological systems respond to changes in their environment. The environmental physiologists in the Department of Biology study a broad range of topics in a variety of vertebrate (mammals, fish, birds) and invertebrate (insects, crustaceans, worms) animals. Our studies take advantage of a diverse array of cutting-edge techniques, such as in vivo physiological recording, patch-clamp analysis, scanning ion-selective microelectrode technique (SIET), cell and tissue culture, confocal immunofluorescence analysis, transcriptomics, and proteomics. Work in the laboratory is complemented by field research in a diversity of locations, including the Queens University Biological Station in Ontario, the Bamfield Marine Station in British Columbia, Mongolia, China, the Andean Mountains of Peru, the Rift Valley of Africa, and the Brazilian Amazon. Motivated students and post-doctoral fellows can expect an exciting, highly interactive, and intellectually stimulating environment for research.
My research focuses on the ontogeny, phenotypic plasticity and evolution of muscle metabolism - important for locomotion, thermogenesis, and whole-body metabolic homeostasis. I use mechanistic and evolutionary physiology approaches, and take advantage of "experiments in nature" by studying species that thrive in extreme environments such as high altitude. I do applied research on the impacts of changing temperature, low oxygen, and pollution on the physiology of fishes.
Environmental Physiology
