Dr. Rick Relyea

Genetics
K. Arndt
T.-L. Ashman
G. Campbell
D. Chapman
G. Hatfull
J. Hildebrand
L. Jacobson
S. Kalisz
J. Martens
W. Saunders
B. Stronach
S. Tonsor
R. Wood

Microbiology
J. Boyle
G. Hatfull
R. Hendrix
J. Lawrence
J. Pipas
M. Popa
R.L. Duda
S. Godfrey
V. Oke

Molecular Biology
K. Arndt
J. Franzen
P. Grabowski
G. Hatfull
R. Hendrix
L. Jen-Jacobson
J. Martens
C. Peebles
J. Pipas
J. Rosenberg
A. Schwacha
C. Walsh

Plant Biology
T.-L. Ashman
W. Carson
S. Kalisz
V. Oke
C. Partanen
S. Tonsor
B. Traw

Science Education
A. Bledsoe
K. Curto
L. Daniels
S. Godfrey
N. Kaufmann
C. LaFave
J. Newman
E. Polinko
M. Popa
L. Roberts
T. Seiflein
R. Sherwin
A. Slinskey Legg

Structural Biology
M. Grabe
J. Hempel
R. Hendrix
L. Jen-Jacobson
J. Rosenberg
A. VanDemark

Former Faculty

Photo of Dr.
Relyea

Aquatic Ecology, Toxicology, Evolution and Behavior

Professor and Director, Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology

Dr. Relyea received his Ph.D. in 1998 with Earl Werner at the University of Michigan and joined the Department in 1999.

Currently, Dr. Relyea is accepting graduate students in his laboratory. Dr. Relyea is accepting undergraduate researchers, and does sponsor students in other laboratories.

Professional Interests - Publications - Contact Information - Lab Personnel

Professional Interests of Rick Relyea

Wood Frog For effective conservation of natural communities, we have to understand how communities work and how they are affected by human impacts. To accomplish this goal, my lab works at the interface of several biological fields, including ecology, evolution, animal behavior, development, toxicology, and biochemistry. By integrating our thinking (and our experiments) across these diverse biological disciplines, we can develop exciting new insights that improve our basic understanding of ecological communities as well as making discoveries that are important to conservation. I have applied this approach to my studies of aquatic communities in which I work in a variety of environments (from highly controlled laboratory experiment to pond mesocosms and natural field sites) and focus on a diversity of aquatic organisms including amphibians, fish, insects, snails, and other aquatic invertebrates.

My research program can be broken down into three broad areas:

The effects of pesticides on amphibians and aquatic communities
The ecology and evolution of phenotypic plasticity, including how predators and competitors affect an organism's behavior, morphology, and life history
Long-term monitoring of aquatic communities

For much more detailed information, check out the Relyea Laboratory webpage.

Publication Archive
68 Citations
65 Abstracts
63 PDFs

Recent Publications of Rick Relyea

Auld, J.R., and R.A. Relyea (2010) Life-history plasticity and inbreeding depression under mate limitation and predation risk: cumulative lifetime fitness dissected with a life table response experiment. Evol. Ecol. :In Press

Auld, J.R., A.A. Agrawal, and R.A. Relyea (2010) Re-evaluating the costs and limits of adaptive phenotypic plasticity. Proc R Soc B: Biol Sci 277:503-511 (PDF Reprint: 231 kb)

Auld, J.R., and R.A. Relyea (2010) Inbreeding depression in adaptive plasticity under predation risk in a freshwater snail. Biol. Lett. :In Press

Cothran, R., R. Greco, and R.A. Relyea (2010) No evidence that a common pesticide impairs female mate choice in a freshwater amphipod. Environ. Toxicol. :In Press

Hoverman, J.T., and R.A. Relyea (2009) Survival trade-offs associated with inducible defenses in snails: The roles of multiple predators and developmental plasticity. Functional Ecol. 23:1179-1188 (PDF Reprint: 244 kb)

Relyea, R.A., and D.K. Jones (2009) The toxicity of Roundup Original MAX™ to 13 species of larval amphibians. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 28:2004-2008 (PDF Reprint: 199 kb)

Jones, D.K., J.I. Hammond, and R.A. Relyea (2009) Very highly toxic effects of endosulfan across nine species of tadpoles: Lag effects and family-level sensitivity. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 28:1939-1945 (PDF Reprint: 211 kb)

Schoeppner, N.M., and R.A. Relyea (2009) Interpreting the smells of predation: How alarm cues and kairomones induce different prey defenses. Functional Ecol. 23:1114-1121 (PDF Reprint: 174 kb)

Fraker, M., E.F. Hu, V. Cuddapah, S.A. McCollum, R.A. Relyea, J. Hempel, and R.J. Denver (2009) Characterization of an alarm pheromone secreted by amphibian tadpoles that induces behavioral inhibition and suppression of the neuroendocrine stress axis. Horm. Behav. 55:520-529 (PDF Reprint: 493 kb)

Werner, E.E., R.A. Relyea, K.L. Yurewicz, D.K. Skelly, and C.J. Davis (2009) Comparative landscape dynamics of two anuran species: Interaction of local and regional processes with an ENSO climate driver. Ecol. Monogr. 79:503-521 (PDF Reprint: 376 kb)

Schoeppner, N.M., and R.A. Relyea (2009) Phenotypic plasticity in response to fine-grained environmental variation in predation. Func. Ecol. 23:587-594 (PDF Reprint: 502 kb)

Relyea, R.A. (2009) A cocktail of contaminants: How pesticide mixtures at low concentrations affect aquatic communities. Oecologia 159:363-376 (PDF Reprint: 987 kb)

Relyea, R.A., and J.T. Hoverman (2008) Interactive effects of pesticides and predators on aquatic communities. Oikos 117:1647-1658 (PDF Reprint: 183 kb)

Auld, J.R., and R.A. Relyea (2008) Are there interactive effects of mate availability and predation risk on life history and defense in a simultaneous hermaphrodite? J. Evol. Biol. 21:1371-1378 (PDF Reprint: 122 kb)

Relyea, R.A., and N. Diecks (2008) An unforeseen chain of events for amphibians: Lethal effects of pesticides at sublethal concentrations. Ecol. Appl. 18:1728-1742 (PDF Reprint: 328 kb)

How to Contact Rick Relyea

US Mail
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Biological Sciences
101A Clapp Hall
4249 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Phone, FAX, Internet
Office : (412) 624-4656
Lab : (412) 624-4458
FAX : (412) 624-4759
Email : relyea+@pitt.edu
Web : http://www.pitt.edu/~relyea

This Site is maintained by the Bioscience Webmaster; this page was last modified 19 January 2010