Nicholas Wu

Nicholas Wu is a Lecturer in Wildlife Ecology at Murdoch University and leads the Wu Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology (WEEP) Lab. His research integrates physiological principles with ecological and evolutionary theory to study species' responses to environmental change, particularly for bats and other wildlife.

• BSc in Biological Sciences, University of Waikato (2012)
• PhD in Ecological Physiology, University of Queensland (2019)

The WEEP Lab combines experiments, field observations, and computational models to address two core questions: (1) How do species respond to environmental and anthropogenic change? (2) How does physiological variation scale into broad ecological and evolutionary patterns? The lab emphasizes conservation applications, mentoring future scientists, and open science practices.

Recent research (2025) reveals global seasonal fattening patterns in bats, showing they store fat not only in cold climates but also in tropical regions during dry seasons. This survival strategy is now being disrupted by climate change, threatening ecosystem stability through impacts on bat energy balance and food web dynamics.

Contact Nicholas Wu for research collaborations, supervision opportunities, or consulting requests at nicholas.wu@murdoch.edu.au. The lab's website is www.nicholaswulab.com.