While broadly covering ecology and evolution, research in the Kohl Lab tends to focus on the physiological ecology and microbial ecology of the digestive system. The lab utilizes comparative, experimental, and computational approaches to investigate microbe-dependent physiological functions at various levels of biological organization and in diverse vertebrate systems spanning fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. 

We regularly use microbial ecology techniques to investigate changes in gut microbial communities driven by numerous factors. However, our true aim is to push the fields of comparative physiology and host-microbe interactions forward by (i) understanding the functional implications of host-microbe relationships to host physiology, ecology, and evolution; and (ii) uncovering the mechanistic bases for these interactions. 

The Kohl Lab in Action

Selected Publications

Host avian species and environmental conditions influence the microbial ecology of brood parasitic brown-headed cowbird nestlings: What rules the roost?

Dietary tannins alter growth, behavior, and the gut microbiome of larval amphibians

Functional convergence in gastric lysozymes of foregut-fermenting rodents, ruminants, and primates is not attributed to convergent molecular evolution