معرفی
Dr. Zachary Darnell is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, affiliated with the School of Ocean Science and Engineering. His research focuses on the behavioral and physiological responses of marine organisms to environmental stressors, particularly in marine invertebrates. He holds a PhD in Ecology from Duke University (2009).
His expertise spans Animal Behavior, Physiological Ecology, Marine Ecology, and Fisheries, with an applied focus on conservation and management of marine species. Recent projects include studying blue crab migration patterns, thermal tolerance in fiddler crabs, and seagrass-nekton interactions in the Gulf of Mexico. His lab actively engages in graduate training, with current students like Hailee Nigro (PhD) and Helen Olmi-Graham (MSc).
Key research themes include life history plasticity in response to environmental variability, behavioral trade-offs under climate change, and the interplay between sexual and natural selection in crustaceans. He collaborates on grants addressing fisheries sustainability and coastal resilience, leveraging both field and lab experiments.
Notable contributions include work on sperm limitation in blue crab spawning stocks, thermal constraints in fiddler crab burrow behavior, and the ecological impacts of hurricanes on seagrass ecosystems. His lab maintains an active publication record with recent papers in journals like Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology and Animal Behaviour.
