Dr Shelby Temple

Summary

My interests are generally in behaviour and evolution, but specifically: visual ecology, neuroethology, visual psychophysics, and aquaculture.

Projects

• Understanding the functional significance of intraretinal variability in spectral sensitivity
• Quantifying polarization sensitivity, and the visual world in the polarized light dimension
• Investigating the functional significance of visual pigment chromophore shifting
• Identifying optimal conditions for rearing larval and juvenile fishes in captivity

Recent highlights

• Recent archerfish work was featured in Nature (News and Views)
• New Scientist Online
• As well as two TV programs (Catalyst and Scope)
• Newspaper (Perth Now)
• And several websites
• Practical fishkeeping
• Neurodojo
• The University of Queensland
• The University of Western Australia

Approaches and Methods

Psychophysical tests

• innate responses (startle responses, movement tracking, optomotor/optokinetic)
• Landolt-C
• Learned behaviours
• operant conditioning

Direct observation of behaviours

Microspectrophotometry

Retinal topography

Electron microscopy

Model systems

Fishes: archerfish (Toxotes chatareus, T. jaculatrix); salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch); zebrafish (Danio rerio), snook (Centropomus parallelus); barramundi (Lates calcarifer);

Cephalopods: octopus (Octopus cyanea, Hapalochlaena fasciata, Abdopus aculeatus); cuttlefish (Sepia plangon, Sepia officinalis,Sepioloidea lineolata ); squid (Sepiotheuthis lessoniana)

Crustaceans: Stomatopods (Haptosquilla trispinosa); fiddler crab (Uca perplexa)

Primates: Human (Homo sapiens)

Biography

I spent my childhood in Ontario, Canada, mostly on a small farm in Hopetown. I moved to Ottawa as a teenager, and went to Lisgar Collegiate Institute. After high school I travelled to Togo, West Africa on an exchange, before attending the University of Victoria for my undergraduate degree. I spent one year at Carleton University in Ottawa taking courses not offered at UVic, as well as a summer at Bamfield Marine Station doing biology field courses. During my undergrad I was part of the Co-operative program that placed me in several work posts including: Saltspring Aquafarms (bivalve & salmon aquaculture), British Columbia Ministry of Environment (monitoring industrial pollution), Institute of Applied Sciences, University of South Pacific, Fiji (testing mangroves for tertiary sewage treatment), and on a Goshawk crew in British Columbia (species and population inventory of temperate rainforests).

My masters incorporated aquaculture studies and research at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as field research at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil.

For my PhD, I returned to the University of Victoria and worked on a multidisciplenary research project, joint funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, under the supervision of Prof. Craig Hawryshyn (investigating the functional significance of visual pigment chromophore shifting).

I received a NSERC postdoctoral fellowship, as well as postdoctoral fellowship from The University of Queensland, to support my continued visual ecology research in the Sensory Neurobiology Group, with Prof. Shaun Collin and Prof. Justin Marshall at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Activities / Findings

Recently, we demonstrated that cephalopods, but not fish, are able to use e-vector (polarized light) contrast to detect potential predators (Phil. Trans.). While it has been known for some time that cephalopods can see polarized light, we have little understanding of the functional significance of polarization vision. Some fish have been demonstrated to have polarization sensitivity, but again it is unclear what it is used for. This research suggests that fish may not use polarized light information in the same way as cephalopods. I suspect fish may use polarized light information for navigation and orientation behaviours if at all, or that it may be an entopic effect, like Haidinger's brush in humans and may be of little adaptive value. While for cephalopods it seems clear that they can use polarized light information for object discrimination, and it may provide them with another dimension of spatial information that is just as fined resolution as colour for other animals, since cephalopods do not possess colour vision.

Teaching

My philosophy on teaching is that university degrees are the highest level of education available and that the calibre of teaching and quality of information presented should reflect this, but also that students should be expected to put in the effort required to fully understand the information not just memorize it. I do not agree with the contemporary business-plan approach to teaching, in which students are consumers and we are selling an education. I think we are sharing and imparting knowledge, and that instructors have an obligation to package that information in a way that is captivating in order to help maintain student interest.

 I like to challenge students to help them learn how to critically analyze all that they read, see, hear and learn. And I prefer to teach to the upper 25 % not the mean. Universities are full of resources and there is no excuse to not finding the information needed. On that note I, make it clear to my students that I am open to and available for further discussions. 

2010                     Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience (The University of Queensland)

 One of several lecturers, led critical thinking tutorials,responsible for part of the exam.

2007-2008             Neuroethology (University of Victoria)

 Taught half of the course twice, developed course material from scratch, led critical thinking tutorials, responsible for half of the exam and marking

2007-2008             Animal Behaviour (University of Victoria)

Laboratory Instructor, wrote quizzes, marked major assignment and invigilated exam

2006                     Advanced Marine Biology (University of Victoria)

Invited Lecturer, wrote exam questions related to lectures

2005-2008             General Biology I (University of Victoria)

                                    Laboratory Instructor, wrote quizzes, marked major assignment 

2005-2008             General Biology II (University of Victoria)

 Laboratory Instructor, wrote quizzes, marked major assignment

2005                     Neuroethology (University of Victoria)

                                    Guests lectures on vision in aquatic animals

2004 & 2002          Sensory Biology (University of Victoria)

Led critical thinking tutorials, guests lectures on vision in aquatic animals, lateral line

2002                     Upper level Course (Education Department, University of Victoria)

Invited Lecturer

2001                     Animal Behaviour (University of Victoria)

Laboratory Instructor, wrote quizzes, and marked major assignment

1999                     General Biology (Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

 Laboratory demonstrator, assisted with marking

Keywords

• retina
• eye
• visual pigments
• ethology
• neuroethology
• polarization vision
• e-vector
• fish
• cephalopod
• chromophore
• animal behaviour
• microspectrophotometer
• intraretinal variation in spectral sensitivity

Memberships

Organisations

School of Biological Sciences

Groups

• Behaviour, Sensory and Neurobiology

Labs

• Ecology of Vision

Links

• Channel Ten TV in Australia
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV program
• New Scientist Online
• Nature News and Views

Recent publications

• Temple, S, Pignatelli, V, Cook, T, How, M, Chiou, T, Roberts, N & Marshall, N 2012, ‘High-resolution polarisation vision in a cuttlefish’. Current Biology, vol 22., pp. R121 - R122
• Ullmann, J, Gallagher, T, Hart, N, Barnes, A, Smullen, R, Collin, S & Temple, S 2012, ‘Tank colour increases growth, and alters colour preference and spectral sensitivity, in barramundi (Lates calcarifer)’. Aquaculture, vol Accepted Sept 13, 2011.
• Talbot, C, Jordan, TM, Roberts, NW, Collin, SP, Marshall, NJ & Temple, SE 2012, ‘Corneal microprojections in coleoid cephalopods’. Journal of Comparative Physiology A.
• Simon, K, Bakar, Y, Mazlan, A, Zaildi, C, Samat, A & Temple, S 2012, ‘Aspects of the reproductive biology of two archer fishes Toxotes chatareus, (Hamilton 1822) and Toxotes jaculatrix (Pallas 1767)’. Environmental Biology of Fishes, vol Accepted Sept 6, 2011.
• Pignatelli, V, Temple, S, Chiou, T, Roberts, N, Collin, S & Marshall, N 2011, ‘Behavioural relevance of polarization sensitivity as a target detection mechanism in cephalopods and fishes’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol 366., pp. 734 - 741
• Temple, S 2011, ‘Why different regions of the retina have different spectral sensitivities: A review of mechanisms and functional significance of intraretinal variability in spectral sensitivity in vertebrates’. Visual Neuroscience, vol 28., pp. 281 - 293
• Ullmann, J, Moore, B, Temple, S, Fernandez-Juicic, E & Collin, S 2011, ‘The Retinal Wholemount Technique: A Window to Understanding the Brain and Behaviour’. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, vol 79., pp. 26-44
• Simmich, J, Temple, S & Collin, S 2011, ‘A fish eye out of water: epithelial surface projections on aerial and aquatic corneas of the ‘four eyed fish’ Anableps anableps’. Clinical and Experimental Optometry, vol 95., pp. 140-145
• Simon, K, Bakar, Y, Temple, S & Mazlan, A 2011, ‘Spitting success and accuracy in archer fishes Toxotes chatareus (Hamilton, 1822) and Toxotes jaculatrix (Pallas, 1767)’. Scientific Research and Essays, vol 6(7)., pp. 1627 - 1633
• Simon, K, Bakar, Y, Temple, S & Mazlan, A 2010, ‘Morphometric and meristic variation in two congeneric archer fishes Toxotes chatareus (Hamilton 1822) and Toxotes jaculatrix (Pallas 1767) inhabiting Malaysian coastal waters’. Journal of Zhejiang University Science B, vol 11(11)., pp. 871 - 879

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Networks & contacts

• Prof. Shaun Collin (University of Western Australia Australia) Dr. Simon Kamir Das (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Malaysia) Assoc
• Prof. Nathan Hart (University of Western Australia Australia) Prof. Justin Marshall (The University of Queensland Australia) Dr. Jan Hemmi (The Australian National University) Dr. Ulrike Siebeck (The University of Queensland Australia) Dr. Jeremy Ullmann (The University of Queensland Australia)