Bio 352: Animal Behavior

(Next being taught: Spring 2009)

Bio 221: Marine Biology

(Next being taught: Fall, 2008)

Bio 211: Land Vertebrates

(in East Africa, fall of 2009)

East Africa '05

An overseas program in biology and general culture

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Micronesia '02

An overseas program in biology and general culture

Kadai village, Yap.

Clipperton Atoll

One of the world's most isolated tropical atolls

Manta ray with remoras at 100 ft

Australia '06

Remarkable diversity both on land and in the sea

Rainbow Lorikeet

A reminder of who is really at the top of the food chain

Oldoinyo Sambu, Tanzania

Kuna Yala, Panama

Collecting data with an underwater computer

off the coast of Panama

I was born in North Carolina in 1958 and shortly thereafter moved to Maryland, where my father undertook his doctoral studies at John Hopkins University. In 1962 we moved to California and I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area just as Silicon Valley was earning it's name. The first Apple computer was being built in a garage down the street from my house during that time and the orchards that I knew from my early childhood were inexorably disappearing under an ever expanding tide of concrete. I developed a love of the out of doors during summers spent living in a tent along the coasts of Oregon and Washington where my geologist father pursued his field studies. My interest in marine science was kindled in 1969 by my dad's underwater exploits during Tektite I and II: 60 and 30 day mission, living in a habitat on the Caribbean sea floor. Following in my father's flippers, I began SCUBA diving at age 15, exploring the rocky reefs and kelp forests of Monterey Bay. In addition to diving, I spent large amounts of time as a teen exploring California's coastal range as an avid backpacker and fisherman. In 1976 I graduated from Homestead High School.

Believing that you can never be too close to the ocean, I attended the University of California at San Diego as an undergraduate, where I majored in scuba diving, intramural sports, and... oh yeah... Biology. After that I joined Bob Warner's Lab at the University of California at Santa Barbara, recieving a PhD in 1988 for my field studies of territorial behavior by coral reef fish in Panama. I then took a break from the ocean to conduct several years of post-doctoral field work on gazelles in Kenya with Jack Bradbury and Sandy Vehrencamp, and my newlywed wife, Lisa (also a biologist). I returned to marine studies in 1991 as a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, There, I lived on a small island with my wife and two children for almost five years. Before moving to Portland in 1998 I also spent a year lecturing and writing at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Since being hired at Lewis and Clark College, I have enjoyed sabbatical leaves at the University of Guam and James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.

Clifton, K.E. & Rogers, L. 2008. Sex-specific mortality explains non-sex-change by large female Sparisoma radians, a protogynous Caribbean parrotfish. Animal Behavior, 75:e1-10.

Bernardi, G, Robertson, D.R, Clifton, K.E., Azzurro, E. 2000. Molecular systematics, zoogeography, and evolutionary ecology of the Atlantic parrotfish genus Sparisoma. Mol. Phyl. Evol. 15: 292-300.

Clifton, K.E. & Clifton, L.M. 1999. The phenology of sexual reproduction by tropical green algae. J. Phycol. 35:24-34.

Clifton, K.E. & Clifton, L.M. 1998 A survey of fishes from various habitats within the Cayos Cochinos Marine Preserve, Honduras. J. Trop. Biol. 46: 109-124.

Clifton, K.E. 1997 Mass spawning by green algae on coral reefs. Science. 275: 1113-1116.

Clifton, K.E., Kim, K. & Wulff, J.L. 1997 A field guide to the reefs of Caribbean Panama emphasizing western San Blas, Panama. Proc. 8th Int. Coral Reef Symp. 1: 167-184.

Bradbury, J.W., Vehrencamp, S.L., Clifton, K.E, & Clifton, L.M. 1996. The relationship between biterate and local forage abundance in wild Thompson's gazelles. Ecology 77: 2237-2255.

Clifton, K.E. 1996. Field methods for the behavioral study of foraging ecology and life history of herbivorous coral reef fishes. Proc. Am. Acad. Und. Sci. 16: 75-82.

Clifton, K.E. 1995. Asynchronous food availability on neighboring Caribbean coral reefs determines seasonal patterns of growth and reproduction for an herbivorous parrotfish. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 116: 39-46.

Clifton, K.E. & Robertson, D.R. 1993. Risks of alternative mating tactics. Nature 366:520.

 

Grants

2001-2004. "The role of sexual reproduction in the ecology and life history of green algae on coral reefs. National Science Foundation. [0082439]

1999-2000. "Effects of prey availability and flock size on the foraging success of shorebirds in threatened wetland habitats" John S. Rogers Summer Research Program. Lewis and Clark College.

1998 - 1999 "Ecological and biochemical consequences of seaweed spawning on coral reefs" National Geographic Research Council [6146-98].

1997. "The phenology of sexual reproduction by green algae on coral reefs" Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Research Opportunity Grant [400-340026-0-16].

1994-1996. "Ecological determinants of scheduling of spawning of a tropical reef fish" (D.R. Robertson, Co-PI). Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Program [SS1234-530A].

Professional Societies: Animal Behavior Society, International Society of Behavioral Ecology, Phycological Society of America, Western Society of Naturalists.

 Mailing address: Department of Biology, Lewis and Clark College, 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd, Portland, OR 97219

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