 |  | Andreas Fahlman
Research Specialist
Biology
Contact Information:
Work: 508 289 3463
Mobile: 240 367 3332
afahlman@whoi.edu
Building: Marine Research Facility 241
Mailing Address:
Mailstop 50
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, MA 02543
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Research Interests
My research interest is inspired by an interest in how animals respond physiologically and behaviourally to hypoxia and elevated pressures. I strive to integrate data collected from different levels of biological organization to better understand the organismal response to environmental challenges. I use a combination of theoretical, laboratory, and field studies to test hypotheses: what could be called “modern physiology”, where tools of other disciplines such as biochemistry, molecular biology, remote logging techniques and mathematics are applied to complement physiological data.
I believe that the comparative approach is particularly powerful when studying how physiological adaptations contribute to biological “fitness”, enabling animals to inhabit a wide range of habitats.
My current research uses both mathematical models and experiments to investigate when and how lungs collapse in marine mammals and if breath-hold diving animals ever experience N2 levels that could result in decompression sickness (DCS). If so, this raises the question: to what extent does N2 limit dive performance in diving animals?
Education
2000 Ph.D. Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Thesis: On the Physiology of Hydrogen Diving and Its Implication for Hydrogen Biochemical Decompression
1996 B.Sc. Multidisciplinary Ocean Studies, Hawaii Pacific University, Honolulu, HI, USA.
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