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Jacinta Kong

Postdoctoral Fellow

Carleton University

Biography

I want to know where animals live and how they persist in their environment. My interests lie at the intersection between ecology, evolutionary biology and experimental biology.

My research centers on characterising diversity in traits and understanding the consequences of this diversity for abundances and distributions of species. I answer these questions through an integrative combination of field and natural history observations, manipulative laboratory experiments, and quantitative analysis and modelling, grounded within conceptual frameworks.

Interests

  • Ecological & evolutionary physiology
  • Microclimate
  • Life history
  • Mechanistic niche modelling of distribution & phenology

Education

  • PhD in Ecophysiology (Zoology), 2020

    University of Melbourne, Australia

  • BSc (Hons I, University Medal) in Zoology, 2013

    University of Queensland, Australia

  • BSc in Ecology & Zoology, 2012

    University of Queensland, Australia

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Postdoctoral Fellow

Carleton University

Jan 2023 – Present Canada
Manipulating diet and rearing context for improving insect farming yields. NSERC Alliance-Mitacs Accelerate postdoctoral fellowship in partnership with Entomo Farms.
 
 
 
 
 

Teaching and Research Fellow

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

May 2019 – Jan 2023 Ireland
Investigating the implications of the relationship between temperature and biological rates for the thermal adaptation of ectotherms and macrophysiological patterns
 
 
 
 
 

PhD

The University of Melbourne

Jan 2015 – Mar 2019 Australia
Predicting ectothem life cycles: Physiological diversity of egg development and its ecological implications
 
 
 
 
 

BSc(Hons I) in Zoology (University Medal)

University of Queensland

Mar 2013 – Oct 2013 University of Queensland, Australia
Testing metabolic theories in ecology: Effects of temperature on body mass-metabolic rate scaling relationships
 
 
 
 
 

BSc in Ecology & Zoology

University of Queensland

Mar 2010 – Dec 2012 University of Queensland, Australia

Recent Publications

Heating tolerance of ectotherms is explained by temperature’s non-linear influence on biological rates

Abstract The capacity of ectotherms to adjust their thermal tolerance limits through evolution or acclimation seems relatively modest …
Jacinta Kong, J.-F. Arnoldi, A. L. Jackson, A. E. Bates, S. A. Morley, J. A. Smith, N. L. Payne
Code Project DOI PDF Dataset

Parthenogenesis without costs in a grasshopper with hybrid origins

Abstract The rarity of parthenogenetic species is typically attributed to the reduced genetic variability that accompanies the absence …
M. R. Kearney, M. E. Jasper, V. L. White, I. J. Aitkenhead, M. J. Blacket, Jacinta Kong, S. L. Chown, A. A. Hoffmann
PDF DOI

Best practices for building and curating databases for comparative analyses

Abstract Comparative analyses have a long history of macro-ecological and -evolutionary approaches to understand structure, function, …
L. E. Schwanz, A. Gunderson, M. Iglesias-Carrasco, M. A. Johnson, Jacinta Kong, J. Riley, N. C. Wu
PDF DOI PDF postprint

Linking thermal adaptation and life-history theory explains latitudinal patterns of voltinism

Abstract Insect life cycles are adapted to a seasonal climate by expressing alternative voltinism phenotypes—the number of generations …
Jacinta Kong, A. A. Hoffmann, M. R. Kearney
Project DOI PDF Dataset
See all publications

Projects

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All Ectotherms Teaching Other

Insect farming for food and feed

Improving insect mass-rearing practice for food and feed

Statistical Modelling Practicals

Learning statitical modelling with functional responses

colRoz - A colour package for the land down under

Installation 1. List of palettes Understanding the structure of the palette 2. Defining and using a palette 3. Visualise a palette …

NERD club tutorials

My contributions to the Zoology & Botany NERD Club at Trinity College Dublin

A toolbox for trait-based forecasting

Forecasting the environmental physiology of ectotherms

Biostatistics tutorials

learnr tutorials for teaching undergraduate biostatistics

Predicting ectotherm life cycles

How are ectotherm life cycles adapted to seasonal climate cycles?

Thermal dependence of biological rates

Temperature affects biological processes on many levels of biological organisation

Teaching

At Trinity College Dublin, I taught Animal Diversity I (ZOU33003, third year, ~35 students, 5 credits), Animal Diversity II (ZOU33004, third year, ~35 students, 5 credits), and Statistics and Computation (BYU22S01, second year, ~250 students, 5 credits). My teaching integrates hands-on experiences through practicals with lectures.

Blog posts (external)

BYU22S01 Statistics and Computation course notes

Other

Recent Posts

R exams template

Make an exam paper (with optional solutions) with the R package exams
Published 1 Feb 2023 3 min read code

LaTeX exam templates with R & Rmarkdown

Make an exam paper (with optional solutions) in R Studio with R code and LaTeX {exam}
Published 1 Jan 2023 5 min read code

Knitting an interactive document

Using interactive functions with an Rmarkdown document
Published 17 Jun 2022 6 min read code

December update

Made it to the end of the year.
Published 1 Dec 2021 5 min read

Gifs keep on giving

Two ways of making gifs in R using {animation} and {gganimate}
Published 1 Nov 2021 4 min read code
See all posts

Recent & Upcoming Talks

ICE 2024

Leveraging insect physiology for mass rearing practices
26 Aug 2024 — 30 Aug 2024 Kyoto, Japan
Jacinta Kong
Project Hashtag

CSZ 2024

Leveraging physiology for insect mass rearing: effects of diet and temperature on cricket performance
6 May 2024 — 9 May 2024 Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Jacinta Kong, M. J. Muzzatti, É. Vadboncoeur, S. M. Bertram & H. A. MacMillan
Project Hashtag

ANZSCPB 2023

Leveraging physiology for insect mass rearing: effects of diet and temperature on cricket performance
9 Dec 2023 — 30 Dec 2023 University of Queensland, Gatton, Australia
Jacinta Kong, M. J. Muzzatti, É. Vadboncoeur, S. M. Bertram & H. A. MacMillan
Project Hashtag

BES 2022

Can we improve our ability to identify climate vulnerability in ectotherm life cycles?
19 Dec 2022 5:00 PM — 5:15 PM Edinburgh, Scotland
Jacinta Kong, N. C. Wu
PDF Project Hashtag

Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting

Thermal adaptation and plasticity of egg development generates latitudinal patterns in insect life cycles under seasonal climates
8 Jul 2021 2:05 PM — 3:15 PM The physiology behind phenotypic plasticity in rapidly changing environments abstract AC4.37
Jacinta Kong, A. A. Hoffmann, M. R. Kearney
Project Hashtag Video
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Popular Topics

code comparative analysis conference crabs data ecology ectotherms github insect farming life cycles mechanistic models microclimate NERD club PhD postdoc R stats teaching temperature thermal adaptation thermal response

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