User:Jgkunk

I am a retired professor, Emeritus from UMass Amherst, and now a Research Professor at UNE Biddeford with a small research lab where I study the American lobster shape, cuticle structure and Epizootic Shell Disease (ESD) in the context of global warming and ocean acidification. My early interest in insects included cockroaches, giant silk moths, gypsy moths and Drosophila wing venation. I concentrated also on the biochemistry and physiology of storage proteins associated with the molting process and reproduction supported by NSF and NIH funding. I worked with Alan Wilson on factors affecting evolutionary rate based on brain size and cultural inheritance. I collaborated with other experts on studying neonatal mouse bone, lily pollen tube and Fava bean root hair tip growth. I expanded my interest in marine organisms under the support of NOAA/CMER grants and a RI Sea Grant studying winter flounder, Atlantic cod, Atlantic Shad, American lobster, blue mussels and soft-shell clam. My childhood hobby was collecting and now photographing wildlife with a bent toward insects. I take 'butterfly walks' as regularly as possible to the Scarborough River Wildlife Sanctuary, which has taken over as my site of choice since moving to Maine from Amherst MA. I have two current projects that are recorded at iNaturalist which are one on American Lobster Shell Disease and another of the Scarborough Land Trust property 'Life Lists'.

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 * iNaturalist Profile
 * Joe Kunkel UMass Home Page
 * Researchgate Profile