Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology

Ralph Ackerman

Visit my homepage at:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~racker/

General:
Environmental and regulatory physiology of birds and reptiles, especially embryos.

Current:
1) Water exchange by Reptile Eggs during incubation
2) Temperature Dependent Sex Determination

Research in my laboratory is directed toward analyzing and understanding two processes: 1) transport processes involving the exchange of energy and materials within the organism and between the organism and the environment and 2) biological regulatory processes. Interest in these processes is directed toward understanding how the organism is adapted to its environment. The approach is typically interdisciplinary and employs both theoretical and experimental techniques to generate and test hypotheses. The current direction of activity in the laboratory is toward describing and understanding the environmental physiology of vertebrate embryos, especially reptile and bird embryos.