Formerly, Head of the Department of Zoology at La Trobe University, currently the Dean of Graduate research and a Professor in Zoology at the University of Tasmania.  The collective aim of research in my laboratory is to provide conceptual insight into the adaptive significance of the physiological processes and mechanisms that underlie respiratory and thermoregulatory adaptation to the environment.   The approach to all aspects of my research is comparative, a species-wide approach being fundamental to understanding the evolutionary basis of physiological mechanisms.  Research areas encompass oxygen supply-demand responses to changes in temperature or exercise; development of respiratory control; respiratory adaptation to high altitude; field energetics, evolution of energy metabolism; and endothermy and physiological indicators for climate change. My collaborative link with the Centre for ornithology is through Pat Butler with whom I have published many papers on respiratory physiology of birds. We have a number of ongoing collaborative projects.

Frappell, P.B. (2008). Ontogeny and allometry of metabolic rate and ventilation in the marsupial: Matching supply and demand from ectothermy to endothermy, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 150: 181-188.

Clark, T.D., Seymour, R.S., Wells, R.M.G., and Frappell, P.B. (2008). Thermal effects on the blood respiratory properties of southern bluefin tuna, Thunnus maccoyii.  Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 150: 239-246.

Green, J.A. and Frappell, P.B. (2007) Improving the accuracy and precision for estimating energy expenditure using the heart rate method. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 80:551-555

Wiggins, P.R. and Frappell, P.B. (2002). Behavioural thermoregulation in Daphnia carinata from different depths of a natural water body: influence of environmental oxygen levels and temperature.  Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 133A: 771-780.