Date of Award
5-2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Legacy Department
Biological Sciences
Committee Chair/Advisor
Blob, Richard W
Committee Member
Blob , Richard W
Committee Member
Schoenfuss , Heiko L
Committee Member
Ptacek , Margaret B
Committee Member
Childress , Michael J
Committee Member
Higham , Timothy E
Abstract
Understanding the functional capacity and performance of organisms provides a strong foundation for recognizing the forces that are responsible for their form, and how they might adapt to variable or changing environmental conditions. Amphidromous stream goby fishes live in a habitat subject to two potentially extreme selective pressures: (1) predation on juvenile fish returning to freshwater from the ocean, and (2) the demand to climb waterfalls to reach adult breeding habitats. Recognizing these selection pressures, I present studies evaluating (1) the mechanisms underlying the functional capacity for adhesive performance, and (2) the risk that predation imposes on amphidromous gobies. Specifically, these evaluations are based on measurements of the musculoskeletal biomechanics underlying adhesive performance in climbing and non-climbing species of gobies, and measurements of feeding kinematics and performance by piscivorous gobioid predators attacking juvenile gobies. Through the biomechanical and functional studies I present, we reach better understandings of how the functional demands of an extreme habitat are met across a range of related species.
Recommended Citation
Maie, Takashi, "FUNCTIONAL MORPHOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS WITH EXTREME PRESSURES: WATERFALL CLIMBING AND PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTION IN AMPHIDROMOUS GOBIOID FISHES" (2013). All Dissertations. 1120.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/1120