Nicholas Fujii SURF SMART
Understanding Defensive Strategies: The Consequences of Losing Legs in Daddy Long-Legs
One crucial topic in ecology is understanding how animals respond to environmental pressures. My research aims to study the behavioral ecology of animal defenses in an evolutionary biology framework. Specifically, this project focuses on voluntary release of legs by arachnids. Although beneficial in the short term, this behavior can carry important negative consequences in the locomotion, physiology, and behavior of animals. Daddy long-legs are ideal for this research because of their unique morphology and behavior. Their accessibility also offers the possibility of performing extensive fieldwork and laboratory experiments in the Berkeley area.
Message To Sponsor
First of all I would love to say thank you to the Johnson fund for this amazing opportunity. Without this grant, I would have had to wait until after college to truly understand the levels of intricacy that are associated with the scientific process. In this program I was able to help with animal care, run trials, analyze data, and present at my first research conference! This was an amazing experience and I hope that this opportunity is presented to other students in the future.
Major: Molecular Environmental Biology
Mentor: Ignacio Escalante