Dr. Zach Culumber

Assistant Professor, Biology, Biological Sciences Department

Biography

View Dr. Zach Culumber's Curriculum Vitae

Visit Dr. Zach Culumber's Personal Website

Education

  • Ph.D. Biology, Department of Biology & Program in Applied Biodiversity Science (NSF-2011 IGERT), Texas A&M University, 2011
  • B.S. Integrative Biology, High Distinction Honors, Department of Biology and 2007 Environmental Fellows Program, University of Illinois, 2007

Publications

  • Culumber ZW, Kraft B, Travis J, and KA Hughes. Accepted. Gene-by-social environment interaction and the maintenance of genetic polymorphism in Gambusia holbrooki. Evolution.
  • Culumber ZW and M Tobler. Accepted. Correlated evolution of thermal niches and functional physiology in tropical freshwater fishes. Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
  • ZW Culumber and M Tobler. 2017. Sex-specific evolution during the diversification of livebearing fishes. Nature Ecology and Evolution 1:1185-1191.
  • M Tobler and ZW Culumber. 2016. Perspective: Swimming in polluted waters. Science 354(6317):1232-1233.
  • Culumber ZW and M Tobler. 2016. Ecological divergence and conservatism: spatiotemporal patterns of niche evolution in a genus of livebearing fishes (Poeciliidae: Xiphophorus). BMC Evolutionary Biology 16:44.
  • Culumber ZW and M Tobler. 2016. Spatiotemporal environmental heterogeneity and the maintenance of the tailspot polymorphism in the variable platyfish (Xiphophorus variatus). Evolution 70(2):408-419.
  • Culumber ZW, G Hopper, N Barts CN Passow, S Morgan, A Brown, L Arias-Rodriguez and M Tobler. In press. Habitat use of two extremophile, highly endemic, and critically endangered fish species (Gambusia eurystoma and Poecilia sulphuraria; Poeciliidae). Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. Online early.
  • Culumber ZW. 2016. Variation in the evolutionary integration of melanism with behavioral and physiological traits in Xiphophorus variatus. Evolutionary Ecology 30(1):9-20.
  • Culumber ZW. 2015. Poeciliid fry responses to conspecific, heterospecific, and predator visual cues. Behaviour 152:1463-1479.
  • Culumber ZW, M Schumer, S Monks, and M Tobler. 2015. Environmental heterogeneity generates opposite gene-by-environment interactions for two fitness-related traits within a population. Evolution 69(2):541-550.
  • Johnson JB, ZW Culumber, R Easterling and GG Rosenthal. 2015. Boldness and predator evasion in naturally hybridizing swordtails (Teleostei: Xiphophorus). Current Zoology 61(4):596-603.
  • Culumber ZW and S Monks. 2014. Does fin coloration signal social status in a dominance hierarchy of the livebearing fish Xiphophorus variatus? Behavioural Processes 107:158-162.
  • Culumber ZW, CE Bautista-Hernández, S Monks, L Arias-Rodriguez and M Tobler. 2014. Variation in melanism and female preference in proximate but ecologically distinct habitats. Ethology 120 (11):1090-1100.
  • Culumber ZW, OM Ochoa and GG Rosenthal. 2014. Assortative mating and the maintenance of population structure in a natural hybrid zone. American Naturalist 184(2):225-232.
  • Culumber ZW. 2014. Pigmentation in Xiphophorus: an emerging system in ecological and evolutionary genetics. Zebrafish 11(1):57-70.
  • Culumber ZW and S Monks. 2014. Resilience to extreme temperature events: acclimation capacity and body condition of a polymorphic fish in response to thermal stress. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 111(3):504-510.
  • Culumber ZW, CE Bautista-Hernández and S Monks. 2014. Physiological stress and the maintenance of adaptive genetic variation in a livebearing fish. Evolutionary Ecology 28 (1):117-129.
  • Culumber ZW, R Miranda and S Monks. 2013. First report of Xiphophorus hellerii in the arid Metztitlán Canyon Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Environmental Biology of Fishes 97 (2):157-161.
  • Culumber ZW and GG Rosenthal. 2013. Mating preferences do not maintain the conspicuous tailspot polymorphism in the platyfish, Xiphophorus variatus. Behavioral Ecology 24 (6):1286-1291.
  • Culumber ZW and GG Rosenthal. 2013. Population-level mating patterns and fluctuating asymmetry in swordtail hybrids. Naturwissenschaften 100 (8):801-804.
  • Culumber ZW, DB Shepard, SW Coleman, GG Rosenthal and M Tobler. 2012. Physiological adaptation along environmental gradients and replicated hybrid zone structure in swordtails (Teleostei: Xiphophorus). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25 (9): 1800-1814.
  • Verzijden MN, ZW Culumber and GG Rosenthal. 2012. Opposite effects of learning cause asymmetric mate preferences in hybridizing species. Behavioral Ecology 23 (5): 1133-1139.
  • Plath M, R Riesch, ZW Culumber, B Streit and M Tobler. 2011. Giant water bug (Belostoma sp.) predation on a cave fish (Poecilia mexicana): effects of female body size and gestational state. Evolutionary Ecology Research 13:133-144.
  • Culumber ZW, HS Fisher, M Tobler, M Mateos, MD Sorenson, PH Barber and GG Rosenthal. 2011. Replicated hybrid zones of Xiphophorus swordtails along an elevational gradient. Molecular Ecology 20 (2):342-356.
  • Tobler M, ZW Culumber, M Plath, KO Winemiller and GG Rosenthal. 2011. An indigenous religious ritual selects for resistance to a toxicant in a fish (Poecilia mexicana, Poeciliidae). Biology Letters 7 (2): 229-232.
  • Coleman SW, ZW Culumber, A Meaders, J Henson and GG Rosenthal. 2009. Inducible molecular defenses, ultraviolet radiation, and melanomagenesis in natural Xiphophorus hybrids - a field-based investigation of lab-based cancer models. Environmental Biology of Fishes 86 (2): 279-84.
  • Purdy Drew KR, LK Sanders, ZW Culumber, O Zribi and GCL Wong. 2008 Cationic amphiphiles increase activity of aminoglycoside antibiotic tobramycin in the presence of airway polyelectrolytes. Journal of the American Chemical Society 131 (2):486-93.