Justin C. Touchon, Ph.D.

NSF Postdoctoral Researcher, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

I am an evolutionarily motivated organismal biologist interested in how organism development and behavior is affected by environmental variation. My research includes developmental ecology and plasticity, predator-prey interactions, terrestrial and aquatic ecology, and the role of plasticity in evolutionary processes. 

My dissertation focused on developmental ecology and reproductive plasticity of the hourglass treefrog (Dendropsophus ebraccatus). I have also used the red-eyed treefrog (Agalychnis callidryas) to understand how early life-stage plasticity is manifest at community scales via abiotic and biotic interactions with resources and predators and used a temperate amphibian community to investigate how pathogens and pollutants contribute to embryo development and hatching plasticity. In my current NSF funded postdoc at STRI I am investigating local adaptation of aquatic and terrestrial egg-laying in D. ebraccatus throughout Central America and in closely related species in South America.

Follow the links below to learn more about my work.

I was recently interviewed by the Smithsonian Institute as part of a segment called "Meet our Scientists."

You can watch the video below.