John Placyk - Ph.D. Student

Background

I was born and raised in a moderate-sized South Jersey town located about 15 minutes from Philadelphia, PA. I graduated from Triton Regional High School (http://www.tritonhighschool.com/) in 1993 and immediately started to pursue my Bachelor's degree in Biology at Stockton State College in Pomona, NJ located approximately 15 minutes from Atlantic City and the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, Stockton changed its name to The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, I changed my major to Marine Science, which I found to be more intellectually challenging, and I decided to continue my education by going to graduate school. I finished my B.S. in August of 1998 and immediately started my Master's work at Northern Michigan University (NMU) located in the upper peninsula of Michigan. At NMU, it was a great pleasure to have Brent Graves as my major advisor, who directed my study on the foraging behavior of terrestrial salamanders. After graduating from NMU with my M.S. in Biology in May of 2000, I spent a summer in New England studying the foraging behavior of shorebirds on the Connecticut coast for the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences of Manomet, Massachusetts. In August of 2000, I started my doctoral research in Gordon Burghardt's Reptile Ethology Lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. For my doctoral research, I focused on the forces driving geographic variation in behavior, morphology, life history traits, and genetic composition in Michigan common gartersnake (Thamnophis s. sirtalis) populations. Using mtDNA sequences from T. s. sirtalis from across the Midwest, I was also able to hypothesize the routes T. s. sirtalis took when recolonizing the Great Lakes Region following the last glaciation. Currently, I am a postdoctoral research associate in Ben Fitzpatrick's population genetics lab at the University of Tennessee, where we are working with salamander species of conservation concern.

Teaching

I've been teaching college/university level classes since 1998 and have experience teaching a wide variety of biology classes including introductory biology for non-science majors, introductory biology for science majors, genetics, ecology, environmental science, human anatomy & physiology, developmental biology, invertebrate zoology, entomology, herpetology, and animal behavior among others. I'm always interested in teaching any kind of courses that focus on the natural history and anatomy and physiology of animals, including humans, as well as courses that deal with ecology, evolution, and behavior.

Research Interests

Since a very early age, I have been fascinated with reptiles and amphibians, and it is this fascination that has shaped my past and current research interests. Above all else, I am a herpetologist and am especially interested in salamander and snake biology. Regardless of what questions I ask with my research, my first love will always be herpetology. While I was primarily trained as a behavioral biologist and still find great interest in determining why animals do what they do, as of recent, I've found myself to be more of a molecular ecologist. My most recent research has focused on the molecular phylogeography of organisms, especially in the Great Lakes region, and on conservation genetics. Along with Gordon Burghardt, Gary Casper (formerly of the Milwaukee Public Museum), the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and others, we are trying to determine the best ways to conserve Butler's gartersnake (T. butleri) populations in Wisconsin and the rest of the Great Lakes Region, as its numbers are declining and it is listed as either threatened or endangered in several states and in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, we are focusing on differences between populations using mtDNA, nuclear DNA, and morphological and behavioral data, to help us better understand relationships between populations, and relationships between T. butleri and the plains gartersnake (T. radix) with which it is known to hybridize. In the Fitzpatrick lab, I'm working on understanding relationships between the endangered California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) and the invasive barred tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum mavortium) that is hybridizing with it in an attempt to help conservation efforts and to better understand hybrid fitness. In terms of the behavioral work I still do I'm mainly interested in how ecology and evolution have shaped behavior. I generally focus on foraging and defensive behavior, but I am also interested in aggressive behavior, social behavior, and the expression of emotions in non-human animals. In addition, I am also extremely interested in the chemical ecology of reptiles and amphibians, and how chemical cues mediate various behaviors.

Publications

In Refereed Journals

• 2005 Placyk, J. S., Jr. and G. M. Burghardt. Geographic variation in the frequency of scarring and tail stubs in eastern gartersnakes (Thamnophis s. sirtalis) from Michigan, USA. Amphibia-Reptilia 26:353-358.
• 2004 Placyk, J. S., Jr. and B. A. Harrington. Prey abundance and habitat use by migratory shorebirds at coastal stopover sites in Connecticut. Journal of Field Ornithology 75:223-231.
• 2002 Placyk, J. S., Jr., M. J. Seider, and J. C. Gillingham. New herpetological records for High and Hog Islands of the Beaver Archipelago, Charlevoix County, Michigan. Herpetological Review 33:230.
• 2002 Placyk, J. S., Jr. and B. M. Graves. Prey detection by vomeronasal chemoreception in a plethodontid salamander. Journal of Chemical Ecology 28:1017-1036.
• 2001 Placyk, J. S., Jr. and B. M. Graves. A new technique for observing redback salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, in the absence of visual stimuli. Herpetological Review 32:94-95.
• 2001 Placyk, J. S., Jr. and B. M. Graves. Foraging behavior of the red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) under various lighting conditions. Journal of Herpetology 35:521-524.
• 2001 Placyk, J. S., Jr. and B. M. Graves. Plethodon cinereus. Site Attachment. Herpetological Review 32:246.
• 2000 Placyk, J. S., Jr., L. Torretti, and B. M. Graves. Plethodon cinereus. Intraspecific Aggregation Herpetological Review 31:167.
  

Manuscripts In Press

• Placyk, J. S., Jr., G. M. Burghardt, R. L. Small, R. B. King, G. S. Casper, and J. W. Robinson. Post-glacial recolonization of Michigan by the common gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis) inferred from mtDNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.

Contact Information

John Placyk
Ph.D. Student
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
569 Dabney Hall
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1610

Phone: (865) 974-3065
Fax: (865) 974-3067
Email: jplacyk@utk.edu