Sarah DuRant

Sarah earned her undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina with a BS in biology and a minor in chemistry. As an undergraduate she worked as a field assistant for Jackie Litzqus, a doctoral candidate examining habitat use, activity, and reproductive parameters of spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata). This experience inspired her to seek a career in ecology and eventually led her to the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory where she worked with Bill Hopkins on a project investigating the maternal transfer of heavy metals associated with coal combustion waste in narrow-mouthed toads (Gastrophryne carolinensis).

Sarah’s Master’s research in the Hopkins Lab focused on the sublethal effects of a commonly-used pesticide on whole-organism responses in a reptile, the western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis). The whole-organism responses she investigated, locomotor performance and energy expenditure and acquisition, also have important implications for an individual’s fitness. After defending her MS thesis in December 2006, she decided to stay on at Virginia Tech. She was involved in multiple other projects, including the effects of stress hormones on respiration in a lizard and several other reptile and amphibian ecotoxicology studies.

For her dissertation research in the Hopkins Lab, Sarah shifted her focus to maternal effects and how they influence offspring fitness. She investigated the influence of incubation temperature on energetic expenditure during embryogenesis in wood ducks (Aix sponsa) and its influence on offspring phenotype (e.g., immunocompetence, ability to thermoregulate). She was also interested in the allocation of steroids (both sex and stress hormones) into eggs and how this may affect traits such as locomotor performance, respiration, growth, and future reproductive output of the offspring.

Dr. DuRant defended her dissertation in the summer of 2011 and then transitioned to Tufts University where she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow with Dr. Michael Romero. She is now an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University, where her research focuses on physiological ecology, bioenergetics and parental effects.

DuRant Lab Website         Email address: Sarah.DuRant@tufts.edu

Representative Publications

DuRant, S.E., W.A. Hopkins, A.K. Davis, and L.M. Romero. 2015. Evidence of ectoparasite-induced endocrine disruption in an imperiled giant salamander, the eastern hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). Journal of Experimental Biology, 218, 2297-2304.

Lattin, C.R., S.E. DuRant, and L.M. Romero. 2015.Wounding alters blood chemistry parameters and skin mineralcorticoidreceptors in house sparrows (Passer domesticus). Journal of Experimental Zoology A. 323, 322-330.

A. W. Carter*, W.A. Hopkins, I.T Moore, S.E. DuRant.  2014. Influence of incubation recess patterns on incubation period and hatchling traits in wood ducks (Aix sponsa). Journal of Avian Biology. 45, 273-279..

DuRant, S.E., A. W. Carter*, R. J. Denver, G. R. Hepp, and W.A. Hopkins.  2014. Is thyroid hormone an upstream mechanism for incubation temperature-induced phenotypes in birds? Biology Letters, 10; doi:10.1098/rsbl.2013.0950.  *Journal Cover*

Carter, A.W.*, S.E. DuRant, G.R. Hepp, W.A. Hopkins. 2014. Thermal Challenge Severity Differentially Influences Wound Healing in Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) ducklings. Journal of Experimental Zoology A, 319, 422-429.

DuRant, S.E., W.A. Hopkins, A. W. Carter*, C. M. Stachowiak*, and G.R. Hepp. 2014. Incubation conditions are more important in determining early thermoregulatory ability than post hatch resource conditions in a precocial bird. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 86, 410-420.

Carter, A. W., S.E. DuRant, G.R. Hepp, W.A. Hopkins. 2014. Thermal challenge severity differentially influences wound healing in wood duck (Aix sponsa) ducklings. Journal of Experimental Zoology: Part A.

DuRant, S. E., Hopkins, W. A., Hepp, G. R. and L. M. Romero. 2013. Energetic constraints and parental care: is corticosterone indicative of energetic costs of incubation in a precocial bird? Hormones and Behavior 63: 385-391.

Hawley, D.M., S.E. DuRant, A.F. WIlson, J. Adelman, and W.A. Hopkins. 2012. Cold Stress mediates host pathology and immunity but not energetic cost or pathogen load in response to an infectious disease in house finches.  Functional Ecology.

Wack, C. L., DuRant, S.E., Hopkins, W.A., Lovern, M.B., Feldhoff, R.C., and Woodley, S.K. 2012. Elevated plasma corticosterone increases metabolic rate in a terrestrial salamander. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology-A 161:153-158.

DuRant, S.E., Hopkins, W.A., Wilson, A.F., Hepp, G.R. 2012.. Incubation temperature affects the metabolic cost of thermoregulation in a young precocial bird. Functional Ecology 26: 416-422.