Karen Warkentin

Research in the Warkentin laboratory examines developing organisms in an ecological context. They study hatching and metamorphosis as critical life history transitions, focusing on the ability of animals to facultatively alter these switch points in response to changing risks and opportunities in each life stage. Their research integrates ideas and techniques from ecology, behavior, and physiology, developmental and evolutionary biology, and mechanical engineering.

The lab’s study organisms are amphibians and their enemies. In the neotropics we study leaf-breeding treefrogs, with arboreal eggs and aquatic tadpoles. Their work addresses mechanisms of plasticity, its evolution, and the consequences of different plastic ‘choices’ in different environments.