I am a physiological ecologist who studies the interactions between physiology, behavior and the environment. My main focus is on how physiological and developmental constraints effect the diving behavior of juveniles, but I am also working on projects that investigate how condition impacts age at first reproduction and reproductive success.
Harbor seals are perhaps the most precocial of all phocid seals.
Unlike all other pinniped young, harbor seal pups can swim and dive at birth, and in many areas do so regularly throughout the lactation period. As the rate at which pinniped diving physiology develops has been shown to be closely linked with the onset of active diving and independent foraging, it is expected that harbor seal pups are also relatively mature, physiologically, at an earlier age than other phocid pups. Early development of the physiological mechanisms associated with diving would be beneficial for many reasons. In particular, as swimming and diving is more energetically expensive than resting on the beach, young seals that could reduce in-water metabolic rates would have a distinct advantage over those that could not. Lower at-sea costs would likely result in higher growth rates, and better condition at weaning.