KIMBERLY HAMMOND

Professor of Biology
Director of the Natural Reserve System at UCR
Office: 3314 Spieth Hall
Phone: (951) 827-4767

E-mail: kimberly.hammond@ucr.edu

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.

• 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. 

Frequent collaborators:

Mark Chappell

Joe Szewczak

Rich Cardullo

My work on deer mice is carried out, in part, at the University of California's White Mountain Research Station in the White Mountains of Eastern California.

Left: Overlooking the Owens Valley and west towards the Sierra Nevada Range; Right: White Mountain Peak (about 4,340 meters)

• Debbie Kristan - Life history consequences resulting from sub-lethal parasitism; Now an Assistant Professor at California State University, San Marcos
• Greg Russell - PhD student began Fall 2002
• Cathy Chmura - MS student began Fall 2002
• Sonia Ortiz - MS student began Fall 2002, now PhD student
• Matthew Van Sant - PhD student began Fall 2005
  

I participate in both the Evolutionary Biology and the Physiology graduate tracks within the EEOB Graduate Program.

Some Representative Publications....

• Hammond, K.A., J.M. Szewczak,  and E. Krol. 2001.  Effects of temperature versus altitude on phenotypic plasticity of organ mass and composition along an altitudinal gradient. Journal of Experimental Biology 204:1991-2000
• Kristan, D.M. and K.A. Hammond. 2001. Parasite infection and caloric restriction induce physiological and morphological plasticity. American Journal of Physiology 281: R502-R510
• Hammond, K.A., M.A. Chappell, R.A. Cardullo, R.S. Lin RS, and T.S. Johnsen, 2000. The mechanistic basis of aerobic performance variation in red junglefowl. Journal of Experimental Biology 203: 2053-2064
• Hammond, K.A., J.  Roth, D.N.  Janes, and M.R.  Dohm 1999.  Morphological and physiological responses to altitude in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 72:613-622
• Hammond, K.  A.  and J.  Diamond.  1997.  Maximum sustained energy budgets in humans and animals.  Nature 386:457-462. 
• Hammond KA, Konarzewski M, Torres R, Diamond JM 1994.  Metabolic ceilings under a combination of peak energy demands.  Physiological Zoology 68:1479-1506. 
• Hammond KA, Diamond JM 1994.  Limits to nutrient intake and intestinal nutrient uptake capacity during extended lactation.  Physiological Zoology 67:282-303. 
• Hammond KA, Diamond JM 1992.  An experimental test for a ceiling on sustainable metabolic rate in lactating mice.  Physiological Zoology 65:952-977. 

Recent Teaching....

• Biology 3, Organisms in their Environments
• Biology 161B, Functional Morphology of the Vertebrates
• Biology 283, Seminar in Organismal Physiology
• Biology 284 GAANN Seminar