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Wesley W. Weathers, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Phone: (530)752-7411
Lab: (530)752-2401
FAX:(530)752-0175
Home Office: (707)451-1907
E-mail:
wwweathers@ucdavis.edu
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Education
- B.S.,Zoology, San Diego State College, CA, 1964.
- M.S., Zoology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 1967.
- Ph.D., Zoology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 1969.
- Postdoctoral, Physiology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, 1969-70
Research
My research focuses on the thermal ecology and ecological energetics of wild birds. The
kinds of questions that intrigue me are: 1) how does the thermal environment affect the
water and energy economy of birds, and 2) how do variations in life history traits,
habitat, and body size affect patterns of energy allocation to reproduction and growth.
Although my research sometimes has conservation implications, I consider myself a
physiological ecologist rather than a conservation biologist. Most of my research
addresses fundamental questions in avian biology, and my students and I use a variety of
physiological techniques to quantify thermal environments and energetics of free-living
birds. Laboratory measurements of water flux and energy requirements, using open-circuit
respirometry, often complement our field studies. Ideally, students working in my lab will
have a good background in the quantitative sciences. My approach is fundamentally
empirical, although I sometimes employ synthesis and analysis.
Selected Publications
- Weathers, W.W., and K. A. Sullivan. 1989. Juvenile foraging proficiency,
parental effort, and avian reproductive success. Ecological Monographs.
59:223-246.
- Weathers, W.W., W. D. Koenig and M. T. Stanback. 1990. Breeding energetics
and thermal ecology of the acorn woodpecker in central coastal California.
Condor 92:341-359.
- Weathers, W.W. and R.B. Siegel. 1995. Body size establishes the scaling of
avian postnatal metabolic rate: an interspecific analysis using
phylogenetically independent contrasts. Ibis 137:532-542.
- Weathers, W.W. 1997. Energetics and thermoregulation by small passerine
birds of the humid, lowland tropics. Auk 114:341-353.
- Siegel R.B., W.W. Weathers, and S.R. Beissinger. 1999. Hatching asynchrony
reduces the duration, not the magnitude, of peak load in breeding green-rumped
parrotlets. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 45:444-450.
- Weathers, W.W., ., P.J. Hodum and J.A. Blakesley. 2001. Thermal ecology
and ecological energetics of California Spotted Owls. Condor 103: 678-690
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