Concord Field Station

Timothy E. Higham

Tim Higham's webpage

Research Interests: My integrative research stems from the observations that vertebrates exhibit extensive diversity in their locomotor and feeding systems, and exploit a wide variety of habitats. Thus, the physiological mechanisms underlying locomotion and feeding have been modified over major evolutionary transitions in vertebrate ecology. I integrate muscle physiology, functional morphology and biomechanics to elucidate the mechanisms underlying feeding and locomotion in vertebrates. Coupling these approaches with an ecological and comparative perspective enables me to study various aspects of evolutionary adaptation. Experimental techniques that I employ include digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV), electromyography (EMG), sonomicrometry, high-speed digital video recordings, and in vivo pressure recordings. See my website for more information.

Recent publications:
Higham, T. E., Biewener, A. A. and Wakeling, J. M. (2008) Functional diversification within and between muscles synergists during locomotion. Biol. Letters 4(1), 41-44.
Higham, T. E. (2007) The integration of locomotion and prey capture in vertebrates: Morphology, behavior and performance. Integ. Comp. Biol. 47(1), 82-95.
Higham, T. E. (2007) Feeding, fins and braking maneuvers: locomotion during prey capture in centrarchid fishes. J. Exp. Biol. 210(1), 107-117.
Higham, T. E., Hulsey, C. D., Rican O. and Carroll, A. M. (2007) Feeding with speed: prey capture evolution in cichlids. J. Evol. Biol. 20(1), 70-78.
Higham, T. E., Day, S. W. and Wainwright, P. C. (2006) The pressures of suction feeding: the relation between buccal pressure and induced fluid speed in centrarchid fishes. J. Exp. Biol. 209(17), 3281-3287.
Higham, T. E., Day, S. W. and Wainwright, P. C. (2006) Multidimensional analysis of suction feeding performance in fishes: fluid speed, acceleration, strike accuracy and the ingested volume of water. J. Exp. Biol. 209(14), 2713-2725.
Higham, T. E., Malas, B., Jayne, B. C. and Lauder, G. V. (2005) Constraints on starting and stopping: behavior compensates for reduced pectoral fin area during braking of the bluegill sunfish Lepomis macrochirus. J. Exp. Biol. 208(24), 4735-4746.

Andrew M. Carroll

Research interests: My interests are primarily musculoskeletal function and design: how muscles function during behaviors, and how selection has shaped vertebrate morphology and physiology. Specifically, I am interested in how muscles meet the loading and strain requirements imposed by behaviors and how their ability to do so is influenced by anatomical context. Current projects involve investigating differential function in the uni and bi-articular heads of the triceps brachii in goats.

Recent publications:
Carroll A. M. and Wainwright P. C. (in press) Muscle function and power output during suction feeding in largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides. Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry Part A: Integrative and molecular physiology.
Carroll A. M., Wainwright P. C., Huskey S. H., Collar D. C. and Turingan R. G. (2004) Morphology predicts suction feeding performance in centrarchid fishes. J. Exp. Biol. 207(22), 3873-81.
Carroll, A. M. (2004) Muscle activation and strain during suction feeding in the largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides. J. Exp. Biol. 207(6), 983-991.
Carroll, A. M., and Wainwright, P. C. (2003) Functional morphology of prey capture in the sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus albus. J. Morph. 256(3), 270-284.

Chris Richards

Research interests: I explore how aquatic creatures control their swimming performance. Swimming frogs are ideal models because their behavior is highly plastic: they cruise, dart, glide and turn with speeds ranging from lazy to explosive. What are the various patterns of leg motion that cause these differences in performance? What can the time-varying hydrodynamic forces on the frog's body and feet tell us about the work and power required from the leg muscles? How does the underlying neuromuscular system dynamically shift to enable this range of behavior? I use a combination of in vivo and in vitro muscle techniques as well as mathematical modeling to address these questions.

Recent publications:
Richards, C. T. and Biewener, A. A. (2007). Modulation of in vivo muscle power output during swimming in the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). J. Exp. Biol. 210, 3147-3159.

Carlos Moreno

Research interests: I am interested in characterizing and evaluating musculoskeletal performance in terrestrial mammals during nonsteady behaviors such as accelerating, decelerating, turning and dodging. To achieve this, I have developed portable data logging instruments to record data from animals running and turning freely in the field. I will first use force plates to characterize the mechanics of turning 90 degree corners, then collect inertial sensor data to quantify performance of natural turning movements. Finally, I will combine these techniques with in vivo muscle strain and activation measurements in order to investigate muscle function during rigorous movements such as dodging and turning.

Recent publications:
Moreno, C. A., Main, R. P. and Biewener, A. A. (2008). Variability in forelimb bone strains during non-steady locomotor activities in goats. J. Exp. Biol. 211(7), 1148-1162.

Angela M. Berg

Angie's webpage

Research interests: My primary research interest is in bird flight, especially understanding how birds move their wings to effect different modes of flight. In my first project, I used high-speed video to explore the differences among ascending, level, and descending flight (Berg & Biewener, in press). Now I am continuing work on landing and takeoff flight, with a combination of high-speed video and in vivo muscle measurements. I plan to use DPIV (digital particle image velocimetry) to further study how landing flight is distinct from normal level flight. In addition to my aerodynamic projects, I will be studying the comparative morphology of wings and evaluating the connection between wing morphology and muscle morphology across species.

Recent publications:
Berg, A. M. and Biewener, A. A. (2008). Kinematics and power requirements of ascending and descending flight in the pigeon (Columbia livia). J. Exp. Biol. 211(7), 1120-1130.

Edwin Yoo

Research interests: I am interested in climbing mechanics in goats and the biomechanics of horn impacts during head butting behaviors. I employ experimental approaches as well as finite-element analysis to investigate the consequences of these behaviors on bone and horn design.

Carolyn Eng

Research interests: I am broadly interested in muscle physiology and factors affecting the behavior of muscle in vivo. Specifically, I am interested in the development, plasticity, and functional relevance of muscle architecture and its contribution to dynamic muscle function.
Currently, I am performing experiments to examine where on the muscle length-tension curve various muscles in the guinea fowl hindlimb operate under various conditions. Using the operating range as a functional measure, I can examine the factors which influence this property before tracing it down to the sarcomere level. This experiment also allows me to examine the role of muscles and tendons in contributing to muscle-tendon unit and joint movement and work in a unique biarticular muscle.
Tangentially, I am also interested in muscle-tendon dynamics during human movement. I would like to further examine the role of tendon elastsic energy storage during human walking and examine this in the context of the evolution of bipedalism.

Undergraduates

There are no undergraduate researchers at this time.

Ivo Ros

I am interested in dynamical systems such as flight. Because of the apparent ease with which some of nature's members fly, one might easily overlook the convoluted synergy of the processes involved. Investigating complex phenomena requires a combination of multiple approaches. In the field of biomechanics, the topics involved in flight of particular interest to me include: physiology, mechanical energetics, fluid dynamics, neural control, the evolution and design of underlying mechanisms, and metabolic energetics. So far, I have looked at gait changes in crayfish during submerged pedal locomotion, and the aerodynamic lift producing mechanism called delayed stall in relation to flapping bird wings. Currently, I am investigating both maneuvering flight in pigeons during flapping flight and responses to perturbations in quadrupedal (goats and dogs) locomotion.

Maria de Boef

Research Interests: Broadly, my research interests are bone microstructure patterns and their formation. I study a variety of mammal and bird species to understand how function, physiological stresses and evolutionary history influence patterns in bone microstructure. It is my hope that these studies will give valuable information that can be applied to palaeontology and ecology.

At the Concord Field Station I am conducting a study using guinea fowl to compare patterns of bone formation under regular flight and running stress. I will be taking in vivo bone strain measurements in order to assess the relationship between bone strain and bone microstructure pattern formation.

Recent publications:
de Boef, M. and Larsson, H. C. E. (2007) Bone microstructure: quantifying bone vascular orientation. Can. J. Zool. 85(1): 63-70.