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email:  z@biology.ucla.edu
phone:  (310) 206-4981
fax:  (310) 206-3987
office:  Botany 212A
lab:  Botany second floor
homepage:  http://zimmerlab.biology.ucla.edu

research interests:  Ecology and sensory biology of aquatic organisms; chemical signals and communication

Research Interests

An understanding of chemical signals in the environment can lead to important insights about the ecology of aquatic organisms. Recent advances in technology provide outstanding opportunities for new discoveries, thus allowing quantification of the associations between hydrodynamic, chemical, and biological factors. Our past work on chemically-mediated interactions between organisms emphasized (1)habitat colonization, (2) predation, (3) motility and chemotaxis in microbes, and (4) chemical signal production and transmission. Current priorities include these same topics, as well as expanding work on predation to remote deep sea habitats while beginning new projects on parasite/host interactions, fertilization and sperm/egg recognition. By rigorously determining the effects of chemical signals on organisms under environmentally realistic conditions, and by integrating these findings within a larger ecological and evolutionary framework, we hope to contribute new theory and information on a wide range of topics in the aquatic sciences. Such broad integrations are intellectually and technically challenging, and our future research will include interdisciplinary investigations on numerous spatial and temporal scales.

Selected Publications

Krug, P.J., J.A. Riffell, and R.K. Zimmer. 2009. Endogenous signaling pathways and chemical communication between sperm and egg Journal of Experimental Biology 212: 1092-1100 .

Ferrer, R.P., and R.K. Zimmer. 2009. Chemical neuroecology and community dynamics Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1138: 450-455 .

Ferrer, R.P. and R.K. Zimmer. 2007. The scent of danger: arginine as an olfactory cue of reduced predation risk Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 1768-1775 .

Ferrer, R.P., and R.K. Zimmer. 2007. Chemosensory reception, behavioral expression, and ecological interactions at multimple trophic levels Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 1776-1785 .

Riffell, J.A. and R.K. Zimmer. 2007. Sex and flow: the consequences of fluid shear for sperm-egg interactions Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 3644-3660 .

Zimmer, R.K. and R.P. Ferrer. 2007. Neuroecology, chemical defense and the keystone species concept Biological Bulletin 213: 207-224 .

Zimmer, R.K.. 2007. Chemosensation Encylopedia of Rocky Shores University of California Press 123-127 .

Zimmer, R.K. and C.D. Derby. 2007. Introduction to The Biological Bulletin virtual symposium on "The Neuroecology of Chemical Defense Biological Bulletin 213: 204-206 .

Zimmer, R.K., D.W. Schar, R.P. Ferrer, P.J. Krug, L.B. Kats, and W.C. Michel. 2006. The scent of danger: Tetrodotoxin (TTX) as an olfactory cue of predation risk Ecological Monographs 76: 585-600 .

Spehr, M., K. Schwane, J.A. Riffell, R.K. Zimmer and H. Hatt. 2006. Odorant receptors and olfactory-like signaling mechanisms in mammalian sperm Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology 250: 128-136 .