Research Interests

My research interests center around the marine mollusks of the Indo-West Pacific. I am interested in systematics, ecology and biogeography, with special emphasis on the ecology and distribution of insular mollusks. Recently I have worked with micromollusks, those less than about 10 mm in greatest dimension. They occur in sufficient numbers both in Recent sediments and as fossils that they can be analyzed for species composition and diversity and thus provide information on trophic and spatial relations in benthic communities. The Hawaiian marine biota is especially interesting in the context of the Pacific Plate because it is readily available and has a fossil record so that it can serve as a focal and relational point for other insular faunal studies.

My graduate students have undertaken such diverse problems as those of the systematics and ecology of the Hawaiian Littorinidae, the reproductive biology of Hawaiian limpets, comparative functional studies of the feeding apparatus and digestive system of dorid nudibranches, muricids and Terebra, and the feeding habits and behavior of Cypraea spp. Currently I am advising students investigating problems in the ecology of rocky shorelines, asking such questions as to the relative importance of predation and productivity in the distribution of shoreline organisms and about the distribution of nerites and sea grasses. I teach Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands (with C. Lamoureux), and two graduate courses, one in Taxonomy and Systematics, the other in Biogeography.