Nicholas Burnett, PhD
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Research

Ecological Biomechanics:  when the flowing gets tough

In general, I want to understand how challenging flow conditions, such as wind and waves, interact with the form and function of organisms, including their biomechanical traits, behavior, and ecology.  My research uses field and laboratory techniques from biomechanics, ecology, physiology, and behavior, and I have worked with the following model systems:
  • Seaweed and their herbivores on wave-swept shores
  • Benthic grazers and suspension feeders in intertidal zones
  • Terrestrial plants and their herbivores in wind-blown canopies
  • Pollinating insects in wind-blown vegetation

Some of my current research is highlighted below:

Flying pollinators in wind-blown canopies

PictureA composite image of a honey bee traversing vertical obstacles (60 ms intervals), viewed from above.
Pollinators, such as honeybees, frequently encounter unpredictable gusts of wind and cluttered vegetation during their foraging trips.  During my postdoctoral training at the University of California - Davis, I am investigated how bees traverse the dynamic flight challenges commonly found in nature.  In a recent study, I found that, relative to honeybees traversing stationary obstacles, honeybees speed up to rapidly zip through moving obstacles in wind but slow down when traversing moving obstacles in still air.  To avoid colliding with obstacles, honeybees in still air rely on flying slowly and cautiously, whereas honeybees in wind rely on fine-tuning their flight paths more than on regulating their flight speeds.
This work was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology and featured in the New York Times and Slate Magazine.



Kelp-herbivore interactions on wave-swept shores

PictureA frond of the intertidal kelp Egregia menziesii
Kelp on wave-swept shores can be damaged if the hydrodynamic forces from waves exceed the strength of their tissues.  During my doctoral research at the University of California - Berkeley, I investigated the biomechanical traits that allowed a large intertidal kelp to survive on wave-swept shores, including trade-offs between buoyancy and fluid forces, links between the material properties and kelp growth rates, and dynamic strain sensitivities that allow kelp to withstand sudden hydrodynamic forces.  I also examined the mechanical and ecological effects of kelp being tangled and knotted by waves, long-term consequences of kelp being pruned by herbivore damage, and continent-scale geographic patterns in kelp-herbivore interactions.



Recent updates
  • March 17, 2023 - Received the 2023 UC Davis Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research
  • October 26, 2022 - New pre-print: "Close encounters of three kinds: impacts of leg, wing, and body collisions on flight performance in carpenter bees" with Dr. Stacey Combes (Link)
  • August 25, 2022 - New publication: Burnett and Koehl (2022) Ecological biomechanics of damage to macroalgae. Frontiers in Plant Science 13:981904 (Open access link)
  • July 22, 2022 - New publication: Burnett et al. (2022) An evaluation of common methods for comparing the scaling of vertical force production in flying insects. Current Research in Insect Science 2: 100042. (Open access link)
  • March 31, 2022 - New publication: Burnett et al. (2022) A push for inclusive data collection in STEM organizations. Science 376(6588):37-39 (Link)
  • March 24, 2022 - New publication: Burnett et al. (2022) Wind and route choice affect performance of bees flying above versus within a cluttered obstacle field. PLoS ONE 17(3): e0265911. (Link)
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  • Home
  • Research
  • Mentoring
  • Broadening Participation
  • Publications
  • Gallery
  • Contact & CV