Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Charlie 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.

Brocco French, K.I., M.J. Herrera, D.P. German. (2025) Sea urchin larvae (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) select and maintain a unique microbiome compared to environmental sources. Biological Bulletin 247: 56-73

Frederick, A.R., B.A. Wehrle, A.M. Lee, C. Catabay, D. Rankins, D.P. German. (2022) Abalone under moderate heat stress have elevated metabolic rates and changes to digestive enzyme activities. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 270: 111230

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

Heras, J., M. Chakraborty, J.J. Emerson, D.P. German. (2020) Genomic and biochemical evidence of dietary adaptation in a marine herbivorous fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287: 20192327

Herrera, M.J., J. Heras, C. Catabay, M. Booth, K.M. Connor, D.P. German. (2025) Dietary-induced shifts in the hindgut microbiome of a marine herbivorous fish leads to subtle changes in gut and liver function. Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology 98: 736035

Leigh, S.C, C. Catabay, D.P. German. (2022) Sustained changes in digestive physiology and microbiome across sequential generations of zebrafish fed different diets. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 273: 111285

Leigh, S.C., Y.P. Papastamatiou, D.P. German. (2018) Seagrass digestion by a notorious “carnivore”. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 285: 20181583

Rankins, D.L., M.J. Herrera, M.P. Christensen, A. Chen, N.Z. Hood, J. Heras, D.P. German. (2023) When digestive physiology doesn’t match “diet”: Lumpenus sagitta (Stichaeidae) is an “omnivore” with a carnivorous gut. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 285: 111508

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

Wehrle, B.W., A. Herrel, B-Q Nguyen-Phuc, S. Maldanado Jr., R.K. Dang, R. Agnihotri, Z. Tadic, D.P. German. (2020) Rapid dietary shift in Podarcis siculus resulted in localized changes in gut function. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 93: 396-415

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
12/02/2025