William (Bill) Wright
1 media/William-Bill Wright (Reduced File Size)_thumb.png 2023-08-15T21:04:57+00:00 Center for UG Excellence 929059fe9a8db94662876b11cdef6e83b70e4c81 146 1 plain 2023-08-15T21:04:57+00:00 Center for UG Excellence 929059fe9a8db94662876b11cdef6e83b70e4c81This page is referenced by:
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2021-09-14T15:45:06+00:00
Dr. William Wright
10
Schmid
plain
2023-09-06T16:39:15+00:00
Email: wwright@chapman.edu
Website: https://sites.chapman.edu/wwright/
College: Schmid College of Science and Technology
Overview of scholarly research/creative activity:
My student collaborators and I study the behavior of marine invertebrates at the mechanistic (neurophysiology lab), behavioral (behavior lab), and ecological (Southern California's rocky intertidal) levels. Happy to hear ideas of prospective collaborators.
Specific projects working on:
We are currently investigating a striking consequence of a seemingly innocuous covering of encrusting coralline algae: The resistance to breakage in fully encrusted snails and hermit crabs is 3X that of unencrusted shells, and exceeds the force of the claws of their rock-crab predators. That crush force exceeds the resistance of unencrusted shells. This suggests that encrusting coralline algae makes hermit crabs invulnerable to their rock-crab predators, and perhaps other predators as well. We also have evidence that predator odor (from lobsters and rock crabs) INCREASES locomotion of hermit crabs (those with no encrusting algae), presumably as an adaptive flight response; By contrast, the odor of the Giant Pacific Octopus, a voracious predator of rock crabs and lobsters, DECREASES movement relative to odor-free water! Apparently "the enemy of my enemy is my friend. " Overall, these findings, and many others, suggest that hermit crabs are a veritable well-spring of interesting behavioral ecological studies.
Number of students looking to work with:
1-2
When students are needed:
Fall 2023
Interterm 2024
Spring 2024
Summer 2024
What students need to work with Dr. Wright:
Work ethic and sense of fun.
What students would be doing:
Trying out new experiments, evaluating the results, and repeat!
Time commitment for students:
Once a week; 5 hrs commitment to project/week
Additional information:
I meet with all prospective students 1-on-1 to determine their interests and catch them up on our progress. The goal is to find out if the MIB lab is where the student actually wants to be
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