Clay is studying how invasive lionfish budget their energy to catch, digest, and assimilate prey at the Cape Eleuthera Institute in The Bahamas. Digestion is sometimes underappreciated as part of a fish’s energetics, and is highly relevant in a species like lionfish, which can eat prey almost half their size and distend their stomach 30 times! Understanding how it uses energy to digest prey may shed light on how much and how often this invasive species eats in the wild, of which little is known. It can also be studied at different temperatures to understand how this process might affect the lionfish invasion as the climate changes.
Lab Publications (4)
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Steell, S.C., T.E. Van Leeuwen, J.W. Brownscombe, S.J. Cooke and E.J. Eliason. 2019. An appetite for invasion: digestive physiology, thermal performance, and food intake in lionfish (Pterois spp.). Journal of Experimental Biology. 222:1-12.
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Jeanson, A.L., P. Soroye, A.N. Kadykalo, T.D. Ward, E. Paquette, A.E.I. Abrams, D.A. Algera, D. Demers, L.J. Epp, M.P. Giles, M.A. Litt, B.A. Manouchehri, R.J. James, S. McBeth, A. Paradis, L. Pittet, J. Sebes, S.C. Steell, A. Thompson, P. Tremblay, E.I. Tuononen, J.T. Kerr, J.R. Bennett and S.J. Cooke. 2020. Twenty actions for a ‘Good Anthropocene’ – Perspectives from early career conservation professionals. Environmental Reviews. 28(1):99-108.
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McGaw, I.J., C. Steell, T.E. Van Leeuwen, E.J. Eliason and S.J. Cooke. 2017. Application of miniature heart-rate data loggers for use in free moving decapod crustaceans: method development and validation. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 91(1):731-739.
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Elmer, L. K., L. Kelly, S. Rivest, C. Steell, W. Twardek, A.J. Danylchuk, R. Arlinghaus, J.R. Bennett and S.J. Cooke. 2017. Angling into the future: Ten commandments for recreational fisheries science, management, and stewardship in a good Anthropocene. Environmental Management. 60:165-175.
