Associate Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Charle Dunlop School of Biological Sciences

Nutritional Physiology, Comparative Physiology, Global Change, Biogeochemistry

Laboratory Website

July 2010 – June 2011 UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Ecol Evol Biol, UC Irvine

January 2009 – June 2010 Postdoctoral Scholar, Ecol Evol Biol, UC Irvine

My primary research goal is to understand how organisms are specialized to use specific resources and the consequences of specialization to ecosystem fluxes. My research integrates isotopic, molecular, biochemical, and physiological approaches to gain insight into the nutritional physiology of a range of taxa from microbes to vertebrates. By understanding the resource acquisition strategies of a range of organisms within a given ecosystem, we can better understand fluxes within that system. My longterm goal to use this information to make more informed management decisions.

German, D.P., M.N. Weintraub, A.S. Grandy, Z.L. Rinkes, C.L. Lauber, and S.D. Allison. (2012) Response to Steen and Ziervogel’s comment on “Optimization of hydrolytic and oxidative enzyme methods for ecosystem studies”. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 48: 198-199

Stone, M.M., M.S. Weiss, C.L. Goodale, M.B. Adams, I.J. Fernandez, D.P. German, and S.D. Allison. (2012) Temperature sensitivity of soil enzyme kinetics under N-fertilization in two temperate forests. Global Change Biology 18: 1173-1184

German, D.P., K.R.B. Marcelo, M.M. Stone, and S.D. Allison. (2012) The Michaelis-Menten kinetics of soil extracellular enzymes in response to temperature: a cross-latitudinal study. Global Change Biology 18: 1468-1479

Lujan, N.K., D.P. German, and K.O. Winemiller. (2011) Do wood grazing fishes partition their niche? Morphological and isotopic evidence for trophic segregation in Neotropical Loricariidae. Functional Ecology (In Press)

German, D.P., S. Chacon, and S.D. Allison. (2011) Substrate concentration and enzyme allocation can affect rates of microbial decomposition. Ecology 92: 1471-1480

German, D.P., M.N. Weintraub, A.S. Grandy, Z.L. Rinkes, C.L. Lauber, and S.D. Allison. (2011) Optimization of hydrolytic and oxidative enzyme methods for ecosystem studies. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 43: 1387-1397

Day, R.D., D.P. German, J.M. Manjakasy, I. Farr, J. Hansen, and I.R. Tibbetts. (2011) Enzymatic digestion in stomachless fishes: how a simple gut accommodates both herbivory and carnivory. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 181: 603-613

German, D.P. (2011) Digestive efficiency. In: Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology, From Genome to Environment, Farrell A.P., J.J. Cech, J.G. Richards, and E.D. Stevens (Eds). Elsevier, San Diego, CA.

Day, R.D., D.P. German, and I.R. Tibbetts (2011) Why can’t young fish eat plants? Neither digestive enzymes nor gut development preclude herbivory in the young of a stomachless marine herbivorous fish. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology B 158: 23-29

German, D.P., and R.D. Miles (2010) Stable carbon and nitrogen incorporation in blood and fin tissue of the catfish Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus (Siluriformes, Loricariidae). Environmental Biology of Fishes 89: 117-133

German, D.P., D.T. Neuberger, M.N. Callahan, N.R. Lizardo, and D.H. Evans (2010) Feast to famine: the effects of food quality and quantity on the gut structure and function of a detritivorous catfish (Teleostei: Loricariidae). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 155: 281-293

German, D.P., B.C. Nagle, J.M. Villeda, A.M. Ruiz, A.W. Thomson, S. Contreras-Balderas, and D.H. Evans (2010) Evolution of herbivory in a carnivorous clade of minnows (Teleostei: Cyprinidae): effects on gut size and digestive physiology. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 83: 1-18

German, D.P. (2009) Inside the guts of wood-eating catfishes: can they digest wood? Journal of Comparative Physiology B 179: 1011-1023

German, D.P., and R.A. Bittong (2009) Digestive enzyme activities and gastrointestinal fermentation in wood-eating catfishes. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 179: 1025-1042

German, D.P. (2009) Do herbivorous minnows have "plug-flow reactor" guts? Evidence from digestive enzyme activities, gastrointestinal fermentation, and luminal nutrient concentrations. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 179: 759-771

Gao, F., H. Yang, Q. Xu, F. Wang, G. Liu, and D.P. German (2008) Phenotypic plasticity of gut structure and function during periods of inactivity in Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology B 150:255-262

German, D.P. and M.H. Horn (2006). Gut length and mass in herbivorous and carnivorous prickleback fishes (Teleostei: Stichaeidae): ontogenetic, dietary, and phylogenetic effects. Marine Biology 148: 1123-1134

Horn, M.H., A. Gawlicka, D.P. German, E.A. Logothetis, J.W. Cavanagh and K.S. Boyle (2006). Structure and function of the stomachless digestive system in three related species of New World silverside fishes (Atherinopsidae) representing herbivory, omnivory, and carnivory. Marine Biology 149: 1237-1245

Pryor, G.S., D.P. German, and K.A. Bjorndal (2006). Gastrointestinal fermentation in Greater Sirens (Siren lacertina). Journal of Herpetology 41: 112-117

German, D.P., M.H. Horn and A. Gawlicka (2004). Digestive enzyme activities in herbivorous and carnivorous prickleback fishes (Teleostei: Stichaeidae): ontogenetic, dietary, and phylogenetic effects. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 77: 789-804

Comparative Nutrition Society

American Physiological Society

Ecological Society of America

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpotologists

Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5858

Last updated
10/11/2017