Doctoral Candidate

Contact Info:

Email: jeffrey.divino@uconn.edu

Office phone number: 860.486.4694

Address:

Jeffrey Divino
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut
75 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3043
Storrs, CT 06269
office: Room 210, Pharmacy/Biology Building

 

 

 

I study how fish evolve to cope with life in both salt and freshwater, two environments that impose opposite osmotic effects on aquatic organisms. I am especially interested in how quickly populations can adapt to novel salinities and if they experience physiological trade-offs when doing so. The threespine stickleback is an ideal model for investigating these topics, since it was originally a saltwater fish that expanded inland after the Ice Age: some populations migrate from the ocean to spawn in freshwater, while others live exclusively in lakes and streams. How can they do that? And do these divergent populations now tolerate different ranges of salinities? Answering these questions will help us better understand how ecological factors, like salinity, shape the evolution of aquatic organisms.

I rear populations of juvenile sticklebacks in the laboratory and test their performance in a wide range of salinities. I focus on detecting physiological changes in gills.

View Jeff’s CV here