Morgan Benowitz-Fredericks

Biology Department

Phone: (570) 577-3506
Office: Biology Building 336
Email: zmbf001@bucknell.edu

Education

Ph.D. 2005 University of Washington, Seattle
B.S. 1998 University of California, San Diego

Teaching

Non-majors Organismal Biology (Bio 122)
Introduction to Molecules & Cells (Bio 205)
Endocrinology (Bio 328)

Research interests

I am interested how hormones both constrain and enable birds (and other animals) to respond to their environment. The endocrine system integrates external and internal cues to orchestrate developmental, physiological and behavioral changes, but it is very sensitive to conditions during development. I am particularly interested in they ways in which conditions early in development permanently affect the endocrine system and therefore the behavior and physiology of birds.

Recent publications

Benowitz-Fredericks, ZM., M. Shultz and A. Kitaysky. 2008. Stress hormones suggest opposite trends of food availability between planktivorous and piscivorous seabirds in two years. Deep Sea Research II. In press.

Addison, B. A., ZM. Benowitz-Fredericks, J. M. Hipfner and A. S. Kitaysky. Two seabirds with single-egg clutches exhibit interannual variability in reproductive success but not yolk androgens. General and Comparative Endocrinology. In revision.

Benowitz-Fredericks, ZM. A.S. Kitaysky and A. M. Springer, 2006. Chapter: Survival strategies in seabirds, in: R. Spies (Ed.), Ecosystem change in the Northern Gulf of Alaska. Elsevier.

Benowitz-Fredericks, ZM., A. S. Kitaysky, and C.W. Thompson, 2006. Growth and resource allocation by common murre (Uria aalge) chicks in response to experimentally restricted diets. Auk 123. 722-734.

Benowitz-Fredericks, ZM. and A.S. Kitaysky, 2005. Costs and benefits of rapid growth in common murre Uria aalge chicks. Journal of Avian Biology 36. 287-294.

Benowitz-Fredericks, ZM., A. S. Kitaysky and J. C. Wingfield. 2005. Steroids in allantoic waste: An integrated measure of steroids in ovo. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1046. 204-209.