Faculty

Sarah DuRant, Assistant Professor Physiological ecology, Bioenergetics, Parental effects   Ph.D., 2011, Virginia Tech Phone: 405-744-5131 Email: Sarah.DuRant@okstate.edu Lab website

Specific Interests

My lab investigates questions relevant to vertebrate physiological ecology and conservation.  The two primary themes of my research include 1) understanding the interplay among environmental conditions, parental physiology, and offspring phenotype; and 2) determining how organisms respond physiologically to changes in their environment.  These changes may be natural (e.g., disease, temperature) or anthropogenic (e.g., contaminants).  To investigate these questions we use a variety of different organisms (e.g., birds, reptiles, and amphibians) and an array of different physiological techniques, including respirometry, heart rate telemetry, locomotor performance trials, endocrine assays, and immune assays.

Selected Publications

• DuRant, S.E., W.A. Hopkins, A. F. Wilson, C. M. Stachowiak, and G.R. Hepp. In press. Incubation conditions are more important in determining early thermoregulatory ability than post hatch resource conditions in a precocial bird. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.
• DuRant, S. E., W. A. Hopkins, J. R. Walters, and G. R. Hepp. 2013. Ecological, evolutionary, and conservation implications of incubation temperature-dependent phenotypes in birds.  Biological Reviews, 88: 499-509.
• DuRant, S.E., W.A. Hopkins, G.R. Hepp, and L. M. Romero. 2013. Energetic constraints and parental care: is corticosterone an important mediator of incubation behavior in a precocial bird? Hormones and Behavior, 63: 385-391.
• Hawley, D.M., S.E. DuRant, A.F. Wilson, J. Adelman, and W.A. Hopkins. 2012. Cold stress mediates host pathology and immunity but not energetic cost or pathogen load in response to an infectious disease in house finches.  Functional Ecology, 26: 701-710.
• DuRant, S.E., W.A. Hopkins, A.F. Wilson, G.R. Hepp. 2012. Incubation temperature affects the metabolic cost of thermoregulation in a young precocial bird. Functional Ecology, 26: 416-422. 
• Hopkins, W.A. and S.E. DuRant. 2011. Innate immunity and stress physiology of eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) from two stream reaches with differing habitat quality.  General and Comparative Endocrinology, 174: 107-115. 
• DuRant S.E., W.A. Hopkins, L.G. Talent, L.M. Romero.  2008.  Effect of exogenous corticosterone on respiration in a reptile. General and Comparative Endocrinology. 156: 126-133.
• DuRant S.E., W.A. Hopkins, L.G. Talent.  2007.  Energy acquisition and allocation in an ectothermic predator exposed to a common environmental stressor. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. 145C: 442-448.