Ph.D. in biology, University of Illinois at Chicago 2002.
M.S. in Biology, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana 1994.
B.S. in Biology, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana 1992.

Research Interests:

My research focuses on examining the genetic structure of lemon sharks, Negaprion brevirostris, on a local and global scale. On a global scale, we use microsatellite DNA analysis to examine population genetics of populations of sharks in the western Atlantic. Three populations are clustered in the north and one several thousand kilometers away at the southern extreme of this species’ range. To our surprise, given the large distance separating the northern populations from the southern population, the genetic differences between north and south are fairly small.

At a local scale, we are using those same microsatellite data to examine the genetic mating system of this species at our main study site, Bimini, Bahamas. From the genotypes of the offspring, we are able to reconstruct parental genotypes. From these reconstructed genotypes, we are examining the following questions:

What is the genetic mating system of lemon sharks?

Do adult females return to give birth at this particular nursery?

What is the litter size of individual females? What is the variation in litter size between females?

I am also interested in the mating behavior and life history of adult lemon sharks. Since our sample is mainly comprised of juvenile sharks, we are inferring what the adults are doing by examining the genetic structure of their offspring. We really don’t have a firm grasp on the behavioral mating system of these sharks. It would be interesting to compare the behavioral mating system to the genetic mating system. For example, we know from the genetic analyses that female lemon sharks mate with several males and give birth to a litter of groups of half-siblings. We don’t know if these males mated with her at the same time or whether the female mated with the males on separate occasions.

In addition to lemon sharks, I am interested in population genetic structure, mating systems, and conservation genetics of all elasmobranchs and hope to expand my research to include many other species of sharks, skates and rays.

Publications:

Feldheim, K.A., S.G. Gruber and M.V. Ashley 2001. Multiple paternity of a lemon shark litter (Chondrichthyes Carcharhinidae). Copeia 2001(3):781-786.

Feldheim, K.A., M.V. Ashley, and S.H. Gruber. 2001. Population genetic structure of the lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) in the western Atlantic: DNA microsatellite variation. Molecular Ecology 10:295-303.