Congratulations to Liao Lab Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr. Ishani Mukherjee and Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr. Daniele Pinton with Dr. Alberto Canestrelli (NSF Grant Co-PI, UF Civil and Coastal Engineering) for being Early-Career Researchers (ECR) Spotlights in the Journal of Experimental Biology June issue where they discuss their scientific journeys and research.
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/229/12/jeb252906/372075/ECR-Spotlight-Ishani-Mukherjee
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/229/12/jeb252813/372005/ECR-Spotlight-Daniele-Pinton
ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of ECRs working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach.
In addition to the spotlights, the Liao Lab has TWO publications in the Journal of Experimental Biology June 2026, Volume 229, Issue 12. Dr. Ishani Mukherjee and Dr. James Liao published the paper "The energetic costs of escaping predation in wild, schooling white mullet (Mugil curema)" and the Liao Lab along with colleagues including Whitney Lab's Dr. James Strother published the paper "From lab to ocean: bridging swimming energetics and wild movements to understand red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) behavior in a tidal estuary". This paper was also featured in the JEB article: What red drum get up to: from labs to the wild by Kathryn Knight.
It's hard to tell whether fish behave the same in the lab as they do in the real world and now in an impressive study from the Liao Lab reveals that red drum don't just take advantage of free rides from the water, their biological needs take priority.
1. The energetic costs of escaping predation in wild, schooling white mullet (Mugil curema)
Paper Abstract
Although predation is a major driver of group living across taxa and the anti-predator benefits of grouping are well established, the energetic costs experienced by groups under predation remain largely unexplored. In the current study, we use wild white mullet (Mugil curema) to provide real-time quantification of the energetic cost of escape in schooling fish using intermittent closed-loop respirometry. We found that small groups exposed to predators showed a 53.8% increase in their organismal metabolic rate (ṀO2) compared with groups without predator exposure. When we evaluated antipredator behaviors such as escape response, group cohesion and displacement of the group centroid, we found a positive but insignificant correlation to energetic costs. We then investigated whether escape responses are socially modulated by comparing the energetic costs of escape across: (i) solitary individuals, (ii) solitary individuals with visual access to a group, and (iii) groups. We found that escape frequency and energetic costs to predation were comparable across social contexts, suggesting that escape behavior may largely reflect an intrinsic survival response rather than being strongly modulated by social context. Furthermore, we found that fish exposed to predators showed markedly reduced levels of feeding, suggesting that predation constrains energy acquisition in addition to imposing direct energetic costs. Our results provide a direct quantification of the energetic costs of escape in a schooling fish, offering new insights into the physiological trade-offs underlying collective antipredator defenses.
2. From lab to ocean: bridging swimming energetics and wild movements to understand red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) behavior in a tidal estuary
Paper Abstract
Understanding how fish navigate complex natural environments requires bridging fine-scale biomechanics with ecological behavior. We investigated the volitional movement and energetics of wild red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) across laboratory, mesocosm and field settings. Using flow-respirometry, we quantified metabolic costs and swimming kinematics under ecologically relevant flow conditions shaped by bluff bodies mimicking mangrove roots and oyster mounds. Fish swimming in turbulent wakes exhibited reduced oxygen consumption and altered tailbeat dynamics, especially at high flow speeds. In a large outdoor mesocosm, dual accelerometers revealed a rich behavioral repertoire, including maneuvering and rest, which is not easily observable in confined lab settings. Spectral analysis and clustering identified eight distinct locomotory states, highlighting the limitations of summed acceleration metrics. Field telemetry tracked wild red drum across a 54 km estuarine corridor for a 3 year period through an array of 36 acoustic receivers, revealing movement patterns shaped by tidal flow and physical habitats. Hydrodynamic modeling showed that although laboratory trials demonstrated substantial energetic savings at high flows (approaching 100 cm s−1), wild fish were detected predominantly in low-velocity microhabitats (<30 cm s−1) near structurally complex features. This mismatch suggests that habitat selection is an adaptive strategy driven by ecological factors such as foraging opportunities, predation refuge and site fidelity, rather than hydrodynamic efficiency alone. Our multi-scalar approach demonstrates that whereas flow–structure interactions can reduce locomotor costs for fish, habitat use in the wild reflects broader ecological constraints, offering a framework for integrating biomechanics, physiology and ecology in conservation-relevant contexts.