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Kenneth Welch

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Assistant Professor
Education: 
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007
Office phone: 
416-208-5100
Fax: 
416-287-7676
URL: 
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~kwelch/
Office: 
SW 521C
Lab: 
SW 161A

kwelch (at)utsc [dot] utoronto [dot] ca

Address: 

Department of Biological Sciences
University of Toronto at Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Scarborough, Ontario
M1C 1A4

Research: 

Our lab adopts a comparative and integrative approach to the study of exercise, metabolism and muscle function. Much of our work focuses on animals with unique or extreme metabolic and locomotor capabilities. Examination of these organisms, informed by ecological and evolutionary context, has the power to reveal what features of design and physiology enable their extreme energetic and physical performance as well as what the limits are to such performance.

  • Selected publications:
In Press
Suarez, R.K., Welch, K.C. Jr (In Press).  Stoking the Fires of Life: Fueling the Highest Vertebrate Mass-Specific Metabolic Rates. Cardio-Respiratory Control in Vertebrates: Comparative and Evolutionary Aspects.
2009
Suarez, R.K., Welch, K.C. Jr, Hanna, S.K., Herrera, L.G. (2009).  Flight muscle enzymes and metabolic flux rates during hovering flight in the nectar bat, Glossophaga soricina: Further evidence of convergence with hummingbirds. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular and Integrative Physiology. 153, 136-140.
Welch, K.C. Jr, Altshuler, D.L. (2009).  . Fiber type homogeneity of the flight musculature in small birds. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 152, 324-331.
2008
Welch, K.C. Jr, M., L.G.H., Suarez, R.K. (2008).  Dietary sugar as a direct fuel for flight in the nectarivorous bat, Glossophaga soricina. Journal of Experimental Biology. 211(3), 310-316.
Welch, K.C. Jr, Suarez, R.K. (2008).  Altitude and temperature effects on the energetic cost of hover-feeding in migratory rufous hummingbirds, Selasphorus rufus. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 86(3), 161-169.
2007
Welch, K.C. Jr, Altshuler, D.L., Suarez, R.K. (2007).  Oxygen consumption rates in hovering hummingbirds reflect substrate-dependent differences in P/O ratios: Carbohydrate as a ‘premium fuel’. Journal of Experimental Biology. 210(12), 2146-2153.
Welch, K.C. Jr, Suarez, R.K. (2007).  Oxidation rate and turnover of ingested sugar in hovering Anna’s (Calypte anna) and rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus). Journal of Experimental Biology. 210(12), 2154-2162.
2006
Welch, K.C. Jr, Bakken, B.K., Rio, C.M.d., Suarez, R.K. (2006).  Hummingbirds fuel hovering flight with newly ingested sugar. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 79(6), 1082-1087.
2005
Darveau, C.-A., Hochachka, P.W., Welch, K.C. Jr, Roubik, D.W., Suarez, R.K. (2005).  Allometric scaling of flight energetics in Panamanian orchid bees: a comparative phylogenetic approach. Journal of Experimental Biology. 208(18), 3581-3591.
Suarez, R.K., Darveau, C.-A., Welch, K.C. Jr, O'Brien, D.M., Roubik, D.W., Hochachka, P.W. (2005).  Energy metabolism in orchid bee flight muscle: carbohydrate fuels all. Journal of Experimental Biology. 208(18), 3573-3579.