Ecological physiology, environmental genomics, climate change biology

The primary goal of my research program is to understand the molecular, biochemical and physiological mechanisms that underlie an animal's capacity to cope with environmental change. Our research investigates how an animal's physiology and environment integrate to structure organismal stress tolerance. Research in the lab focuses mainly on marine organisms that are distributed along the California coast (e.g. limpets, sea urchins and intertidal fishes), but extends to New Zealand and Antarctic fishes. By taking a comparative approach, we are able to understand the differences in tolerance strategies of animals that inhabit variable environments (e.g. rocky intertidal zone) compared to those that inhabit very stable marine environments (e.g. Southern Ocean). Currently, research in the lab has an eye towards global climate change and addresses the general question of whether contemporary marine animals have the physiological flexibility necessary to buffer the unprecedented rates of environmental change, specifically ocean warming and acidification. For example, we are using intertidal limpet species (Genus: Lottia) to address broader questions relating to vulnerability of rocky intertidal organisms to future ocean warming and increased frequency of extreme high temperature events.

2011 Fangue, N.A., Osborne, E.J., Todgham, A.E. and Schulte, P.M. The onset temperature of the heat-shock response and whole-organism thermal tolerance are tightly correlated in both laboratory-acclimated and field-acclimatized tidepool sculpins (Oligocottus maculosus). Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 84: 341-352. 2010 Hofmann, G.E. and Todgham, A.E. Living in the now: Physiological mechanisms to tolerate a rapidly changing environment. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 72: 127-145. O’Donnell, M.J., Todgham, A.E., Sewell, M.A., Hammond, L.M., Ruggiero, K., Fangue, N.A., Zippay, M.L. and Hofmann, G.E. Ocean acidification alters skeleton formation in larvae of the sea urchin Lytechinus pictus: evidence from morphometrics and microarray data. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 398: 157-171. 2009 Todgham, A.E. and Hofmann, G.E. Transcriptomic response of sea urchin larvae Strongylocentrotus purpuratus to CO2-driven seawater acidification. J. Exp. Biol. 212: 2579-2594. Mandic, M., Todgham, A.E. and Richards, J.G. The evolution of mechanisms of hypoxia tolerance. Proc. R. Soc. B 276:735-744. 2008 Hofmann, G.E., O’Donnell, M.J. and Todgham, A.E. Using functional genomics to explore the impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying marine organisms. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 373:219-225. Sloman, K.A., Mandic, M, Todgham, A.E., Fangue, N.A. and Richards, J.G. The response of the tidepool sculpin, Oligocottus maculosus, to hypoxia in laboratory, mesocosm and field environments. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A 149:284-292. 2007 Todgham, A.E., Hoaglund, E.A. and Hofmann, G.E. Is cold the new hot?: Elevated ubiquitin conjugated protein levels in tissues of Antarctic fish as evidence for cold-denaturation of proteins in vivo. J. Comp. Physiol. B 177:857-866. 2006 Todgham, A.E., Iwama, G.K. and Schulte, P.M. Effect of the natural tidal cycle and artificial tempeature cycling on Hsp levels in tidepool sculpins, Oligocottus maculosus. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 79: 1033-1045. 2005 Todgham, A.E., Schulte, P.M. and Iwama, G.K. Cross-tolerance in the tidepool sculpin: the role of heat shock proteins. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 78:133-144. 2004 Iwama, G.K., Afonso, L.O.B., Todgham, A.E., Ackerman, P.A. and Nakano, K. Are hsps suitable for indicating stressed states in fish? J. Exp. Biol. 207:15-19. 2002 Basu, N., Todgham, A.E., Ackerman, P.A., Bibeau, M.R., Nakano, K., Schulte, P.M. and Iwama, G.K. Heat shock protein genes and their functional significance in fish. Gene 295:173-183. 2001 Todgham, A.E., Anderson, P.M. and Wright, P.A. Effects of exercise on nitrogen excretion, carbamoyl phosphate synthetase III activity and related urea cycle enzymes in muscle and liver tissues of juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A 129:527-539. Gamperl, A.K., Todgham, A.E., Parkhouse, W.S., Dill, R. and Farrell, A.P. Recovery of trout myocardial function following anoxia: preconditioning in a non-mammalian model. Am. J. Physiol. 281:R1755-1763.