My research focuses on the neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying seasonal changes in social behavior. Specifically, I am interested in studying how animals physiologically encode cues from their environment to seasonally alter aggression, a behavior that is essential in promoting survival and reproductive fitness among conspecifics. Currently, I am examining the hormonal mechanisms underlying territorial aggression in Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus), with a particular emphasis on how seasonal fluctuations in melatonin secretion mediate changes in neural and adrenal steroid synthesis.
I am a third year Ph.D. student studying Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior in the Demas lab at Indiana University. I consider myself a comparative physiologist at heart, since I spent six years conducting research in fish physiology and aquatic toxicology before beginning my graduate career in behavioral endocrinology. I received my B.Sc. and B.A. from the University of Miami, where I was an undergraduate researcher in the Grosell lab at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. I then spent three years as a research assistant in the Galvez lab at Louisiana State University.
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Mailing Address:
Department of Biology
Indiana University
Jordan Hall 265
1001 East Third Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
E-mail: kmunley@indiana.edu
