Marine fauna are exposed to intensity gradients of environmental factors on a diurnal and seasonal basis which limit their distribution and alter their physiological capacity to adapt. We study the relationship between seasonal and diurnal variation in natural and anthropogenic environmental factor gradients and animal tolerance, physiological adaptation, and behavioral interactions in the northern Gulf of Mexico and in the northwestern Pacific coast of North America. Recent and future research will focus on the effects of seasonal and diurnal salinity and temperature gradients on the performance of decapod crabs, gastropods, and sea stars. Techniques used include the determination of energy budgets (Scope for growth), RNA:DNA ratios, aerobic/anaerobic transitions, interactions among species and synthesis of intracellular compatable osmolytes during the adaptation to freezing.
Stickle, W.B. and H.J. Wyler. 2007. Effects of temperature on the tolerance and aerobic- anaerobic transitions in the juvenile blue crab Callinectes sapidus. Aquatic Biology (submitted).
Stickle, W, B., H.J. Wyler and T.H. Dietz. 2007. Effects of salinity on juvenile
crab physiology and agonistic interactions between two species of juvenile blue
crabs, Callinectes sapidus and Callinectes similis. Journal of Experimental
Marine Biology and Ecology (in press).
Stickle, W.B. and S.D. Rice. 2007. Effects of seasonal variation in water and
air temperature on the righting response of Leptasterias spp. From the West
Coast of North America. Preceedings of the 12th International Echinoderm Conference,
August 7-11, 2006 ( Ed. Larry Harris), University of New Hampshire Durham, New
Hampshire, USA A.A. Balkema Leiden (submitted).
Hulathduwa, Y.D., W.B. Stickle and K..M. Brown. 2007. The effect of salinity on survival, bioenergetics, and predation risk in the mud crabs Panopeus simpsoni and Eurypanopeus depressus. Mar. Biol. 152:363-370.
Stickle, W.B., E.N. Kozloff and S. Story. 2007. Physiology of the ciliate Orchitophrya
stellarum and its experimental infection of Leptasterias spp. Canadian Journal
of Zoology. 85: 200 -206.