Dr. Marv Lutnesky

Education

Ph.D. University of Hawaii 1992 (zoology)
M.S. San Diego State University 1984 (biology)
B.S. San Diego State University 1981 (zoology)

Research Field

My teaching and research interests are in the fields of animal behavior and ecology.  I use aquatic animals as model systems to study basic problems in sexual selection and risk assessment.   My students and I form the Behavioral Ecology Research Group at ENMU, and work in our laboratory is quite varied.  It includes such diverse topics as antipredator behavior of water fleas, ostracods (aquatic crustaceans), and fishes; environmental sex determination in fishes; and female-female competition and male choice in fishes. The common thread that runs through all of this work is "animal sampling," i.e., how animals sample their environment, and how the sampling influences behavior that forms a tactic or strategy for survival and reproduction.  Our findings often show that behavior is dynamic and dependent on ecological context.  How ecological context influences animal sampling and the consequent behavior is important for a basic understanding of animals and for our hopes of recovery programs and conservation biology.

I teach the following courses: (each course is offered at least once every two years, but see the Department of Biology home page for course schedules). The courses I teach are General Biology I (BIOL 151), General Ecology (BIOL 303), Fisheries Management (BIOL 404/504), Herpetology (BIOL 411/511), Limnology and Freshwater Biology (BIOL 430/530), Ichthyology (BIOL 436/536), Animal Behavior (BIOL 564), etc.

Contact Information

Department of Biology
ENMU Station 33
1500 S Ave K
Portales, NM 88130

Phone: 575.562.2174
Fax: 575.562.2192
E-mail: marv.lutnesky@enmu.edu