Kim Hammond, PhD

Degree: Ph.D., Colorado State University, 1989

My research interests are in the area of animal physiological ecology and evolutionary physiology.  More specifically, I am interested in how anatomical and physiological capacities meet environmental demands.  For instance: when an animal is confronted by a greater energetic or physiological demand (cold temperatures, hypoxic conditions) can it compensate for that demand by increasing (or decreasing) physiological processing capacity?

Animals often meet changes in demand with changes in the size of organs and organ capacity.   I am most interested in learning how these load/capacity relationships are reflected in an animal's life history.  This approach demands an appreciation of both mechanistic physiology and ecology, and requires both field and laboratory research.  In addition, I study animals at all stages of development, concentrating on the effects of environmental demands in utero and during adulthood.  At present I work primarily in desert and montane systems, using rodents as study species.

Recent and current projects of my students, my colleagues, and myself:

The interplay between physiological acclimation and genetic adaptation to hypoxia in deer mice. 
Limits to metabolic energy output elicited by lactation, cold exposure, and exercise in laboratory mice, house mice and deer mice. 
Effects of sub-lethal parasites on host physiology during lactation, cold exposure and food restriction in mice. 
The correlation between organ size and aerobic performance in junglefowl
Changes in organ size and function in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) along an altitudinal gradient.