Evolution and genetics of phenotypic plasticity and acoustic communication

Current Research Projects

1) Evolution of socially flexible mating behaviour in crickets

2) Developmental genomics of rapid evolution in the wild

3) Quantitative genetic modelling incorporating indirect genetic effects

4) Evolution of same-sex sexual behaviour

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

Please visit the lab website for details about current research and PhD or postdoc openings: www.flexiblephenotype.org or contact me directly

Behavioural dynamics of marine predators. The application of scale-based theoretical and statistical models to examine single- and multidimensional behavioural vectors of marine predators, particularly in relation to the distribution of food patches. The objective of this research is to :

* Develop and test dynamic models of the way in which predator fitness varies in relation to the distribution and abundance of food and of how this ultimately influences the evolution of life-histories and the viability of predators in different environments.

* Characterise the functional relationship (in terms of fitness) of animals to environmental variability and thereby to develop a predictive framework for population trajectories under different environmental conditions.

* Examine the impact of marine predators on their food supply. This research has involved extensive studies of bioenergetics and behaviour including the use of remote recording technology. The results from these studies are providing the foundation for the development of algorithms to calculate the direction and dynamics of energy flux through predators populations.

Current Projects

Life history optimisation and environmental variability in seals

The abundance of Mammals in the Deep Oceans

Behavioral responses of beaked whales and other deep-diving odontocetes to anthropogenic sounds

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

• Potential students are welcome to contact me to discuss projects

I’m interested in 1) how male and female mammals develop during their lifetimes and 2) the evolution of sex differences in behaviour. My research focuses on the role that steroid hormones play in the development of sex differences in behaviour, with particular emphasis on infancy and adolescence. I use theoretical techniques to study the evolution of behaviour.

Current Projects

Hormones and sex differences in behaviour

My research investigates how differential exposure to hormones may organise the developing brains of male and female mammals during specific stages of life. These stages include the prenatal, early postnatal and adolescent periods of development. Currently, I’m investigating whether ovarian hormones influence sex differences in anxiety-like behaviour and response to novelty in adolescent and adult female rats.

Evolutionary approaches to behaviour

I use meta-analytic and comparative statistics to investigate the evolution of aspects of primate life histories, such as birth sex ratios, dispersal patterns and mating strategies. I’m also interested in how evolutionary theory has been applied to the study of human behaviour.

Infant development and parental care

I’ve studied sex differences in behaviour in infant primates and investigated whether primate mothers invest differently in sons and daughters. I’m also interested in whether transfer of food from parents to infants can influence future diet or food processing skills.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

PhD or MPhil projects

• Hormonal influences on anxiety-like behaviour
• Sex differences in behavioural development
• Comparative analyses of mammalian life histories

I have two major research interests: behavioural ecology of birds and conservation ecology of birds.

Current Projects

The starvation-predation risk trade-off

My interests in behavioural ecology centre mainly around understanding how animals manage their risk of predation and how predators then compensate themselves to maximise their chance of catching prey. I concentrate on studying how small birds such as blackbirds or redshanks avoid depredation by raptors such as sparrowhawks or peregrines. I am also interested in foraging behaviour and the conflict between the need to forage and scan for predators, transfer of foraging and predator information between individuals, nest predation, incubation and foraging energetics, interference competition, individual foraging specialisations and variation in competitive ability and pursuitdeterrent signalling.

Factors determining the density and distribution of endemic, declining and migrant birds

My interests in conservation ecology centre mainly on the factors determining the density and distribution of endemic, declining and migrant birds. Much of this is based in West Africa and associated with the Leventis Ornithological Research Institute in Jos, Nigeria. I collect baseline survey and habitat association data necessary to formulate conservation strategies for endangered and declining birds. I also am interested in the effects of forest fragmentation on African birds, survival rates of tropical birds, differences in the foraging/predation trade-off between tropical and temperate birds and the use of degraded and farmland habitats by African birds and Palearctic migrant species.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

• Potential students are welcome to contact me to discuss specific projects

Maternal effects in zebra Finches

Parents can determine offspring’s environment through their behaviour or the resources they provide that alter the environment in which the offspring develop. Female birds adjust the constituents of their eggs depending on environmental circumstances with long term consequences for the chicks.

Parentage and relatedness in communal nesting systems

Communal nesting systems are rare in birds and involve multiple males and females all rearing their offspring in a communal clutch, but of considerable interest in behavioural ecology for the interplay of cooperation and conflict. We are investigating the parentage of the chicks and the relatedness of the parents in guira cuckoos using molecular markers.

Population structure in seals and dolphins

Understanding the population structure of sea mammals is essential in proposing management plans for their conservation. Using both mitochondrial and nuclear markers we are investigating this with the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews and with the Norwegian Polar Institute.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

• PhD project - Diet, maternal effects and their mechanism and adaptiveness in the zebra finch
• MPhil project - Parentage and relatedness in grey seals
• MPhil project - Maternal effects and parentage in birds

My interests lie primarily in the study of foraging behaviour and ecology of marine predators, and the application of this to conservation planning.

Current Projects

Marine predator foraging ecology

Work on predator foraging often relies on inference from dive profiles. Using a miniature video camera attached to the animal we can view the foraging space of a diving animal and test previously used proxies for foraging behaviour. The identification of foraging areas and assessment of the stability of these over time and space enable us to investigate variability in foraging success and the criteria driving this (whether anthropogenically or environmentally induced)

Diving physiology

The mechanisms allowing marine mammals to avoid problems associated with diving to depth are still only partially understood. Recent deaths of beaked whales associated with sonar exposure appear to be due to decompression sickness. I am interested in how problems such as shallow-water blackout and decompression sickness are avoided, and use modelling approaches to determine risk based on dive profiles.

Conservation planning and marine protected areas

An ecosystem-approach is widely advocated in conservation planning but ecosystem modelling approaches, despite their sophistication, often suffer from a lack of source data or inherent uncertainties. An alternative is to use spatially explicit management. I am interested in the application of such marine reserve areas to higher predators.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

• Potential students are welcome to contact me to discuss projects.

I am interested in the evolution of complexity in communication. This includes the influences of learning and genetics on communication systems, functional aspects of call use and cognitive skills that underpin communication. My main focus is on marine mammals. Other interests are interactions between communication and social behaviour and the perceptual world of marine mammals.

Current Projects

Genetic influences on dolphin whistle structure

Whistle development in bottlenose dolphins is strongly influenced by vocal learning. However, genetic and environmental factors will also contribute to whistle structure. To assess these contributions we compare whistle variability within and between populations and relate this to genetic similarity and environmental parameters.

Reference in dolphin signature whistles

Each individual dolphin invents its own distinctive signature whistle contour. This contour is then used by others in social interactions. This project investigates how dolphins react if they are being copied and whether their perception of identity is modality independent.

Acoustic communication in grey and harbour seals

While we know that some phocid seals can copy novel and even speech sounds, little is know on how phocids use their own calls. In this project we test a variety of seal sounds on grey and harbour seals to study their reactions. We also test their responses to artificial sounds to assess the impact of anthropogenic noise on their behaviour.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

project type here

• PhD project - The role of food calls and social calls in dolphin foraging
• MPhil project - Vocal production learning in grey seals
• MPhil project - Echolocation behaviour of wild bottlenose dolphins

My research encompasses a range of topics related to animal behaviour and evolution, particularly social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction, employing both experimental and theoretical approaches.

Current Projects

Niche Construction

Organisms construct and select important components of their environment, in the process affecting both the selection acting on themselves and their descendants, and the availability of resources to other organisms. We investigate niche construction using population genetics models and in an experimental marine invertebrate system.

Social Learning Strategies

Animals learn from others selectively according to evolved rules, called ‘social learning strategies’. This project investigates such strategies, through experimental studies in monkeys (capuchins, callitrichids), birds (budgerigars) and fish (sticklebacks), and through evolutionary game theory modelling.

Predicting the Diffusion and Inheritance of Behavioural Innovations

A challenge for social learning researchers is to identify animal ‘traditions’ and to work out how novel behaviour and skills spread. We use experimental studies of budgerigars and mathematical / statistical methods to determine where animals have acquired their behaviour through social learning, and how novel behaviour spreads in animal populations. The methods are applied to isolate ‘culture’ in natural animal populations, including chimpanzees and dolphins.

Intelligence and Brain Evolution in Primates

We conduct comparative statistical analyses exploring the correlates and causes of the large primate brain and the evolution of intelligence. Social learning, innovation and tool use all co-vary with primate relative brain size and may have been drivers of brain evolution.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

• Social learning strategies
• Predicting the diffusion and inheritance of behavioural innovations
• Intelligence and brain evolution in primates
• Niche construction

We are interested in the evolution of behaviour, particularly social interactions, predator avoidance and reproductive decisions. Our focus is on fish and includes research on Trinidadian guppies, endangered Mexican goodeids, Amazonian piranhas and Scottish salmon.

Current Projects

Evolution of reproductive decisions - guppies

We have been investigating the evolution of reproductive isolation in the Trinidadian guppy and shown that gametic isolation is one of the first isolating mechanisms to emerge. In addition we have found that learning plays a key role in mate discrimination.

Evolution, behaviour and conservation

Invasive species threaten biodiversity and many of the world’s freshwater fish species are at risk of extinction. We are investigating the behavioural and ecological interactions between invasive guppies and endangered goodeids in Mexico.

Evolution of social behaviour - piranhas

Red-bellied piranhas have a fearsome reputation, but how well is this deserved? Our study of their behaviour in the flooded forest of the Brazilian Amazon is showing that the primary function of schooling in this species is defence against predation.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

MPhil and PhD project proposals in any of the above areas are welcomed

My research focuses on social communication and behavioral ecology of marine mammals. I record and describe the behaviour patterns of marine mammals in order to elucidate their function, often using novel research tools. I seek to unravel how the marine environment influences foraging, social interactions, and swimming behaviour.

Current Projects

Foraging and social behaviour of sperm whales

Sperm whales are prodigious divers. We have used acoustic and motion-recording suction-cup tags their diving, sound production, and resting behaviour. We now know that sperm whales spend over 50% of their time actively pursuing prey at depth. My lab is working to describe other aspects of sperm whale behaviour, including how and when sperm whales rest, and possibly sleep, within their busy dive schedule.

Diverse feeding habits of killer whales:mammal –eaters versus herring - herders

Killer whales are generalist predators as a species, but each population is remarkably specialized on certain prey types. This project seeks to describe how prey type might relate to population-level differences in foraging and social behaviour.

Effects of noise on communication

To be effective in communication, signals must be detected and decoded in the presence of noise. I am using animal models ranging from the fruit fly D montana to the humpback whale to explore how noise influences communication systems and how signallers might respond to noise within ecological and evolutionary time scales.

Overview of Research Interests:

The Ritchie laboratory takes a broad approach to studies of the origin of species. Behaviours involved in sexual isolation are characterised and their genetic control studied, using both quantitative and molecular approaches to behaviour genetics, as well as phylogeographic studies of variation in behaviour. 

Current Research Projects:

Analysing genes influencing Drosophila behaviour

We have used Quantitative Trait Locus techniques to localise the genomic location of genes influencing behaviour in flies. Now that several genomes are available, it is possible to move into ‘postgenomic’ studies of patterns in the evolution of these genes, and to begin looking at the expression and variation of candidate genes

Variation in female mate preferences

Female preferences are very important to sexual selection and speciation, but are difficult to measure and quantify. We measure preference variation in different species of Drosophila and other insects such as bushcrickets.

Phylogeography and behaviour

Studies of geographic variation in a range of organisms, including Mexican fish and cannibalistic crickets, explore the importance of variation in behaviour to population genetic structure and the role of sexual selection in speciation.

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

Please contact me directly to discuss potential postgraduate opportunities.

Our work considers the evolution of reproductive behaviour, particularly in insects. Insects display a bewildering diversity of reproductive strategies, spanning the finding and choosing of a mate, the extent of multiple mating, how resources are allocated to offspring, and how offspring are provided for (if at all).

For full details of our research and current opportunities please visit the group's website: Insect Behavioural Ecology.

In addition to post-doctoral and post-graduate positions within the group, there are also opportunities for under-graduates to gain research experience in our lab or to do their Senior Honours projects with us. Again, for further details please visit our website.

Research Interests

I am interested in using multi-disciplinary approaches to gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms that underlie complex patterns of behaviour. Currently this involves integrating behaviour, physiology and neuroendocrinology using avian species in both the field and laboratory.

Current Research Projects

Developmental programming

I am involved in several studies investigating the role of developmental conditions in shaping an individual's response to its environment, focussing on the potential programming of phenotypic traits. This work takes multi-disciplinary approach to determine the mechanisms underlying the long term behavioural effects of developmental conditions both within and across generations. Currently I am focussing on the influence of elevated stress hormones during pre- and post-natal development on adult brain and behaviour. In addition I am studying the adaptive significance of these neural and behavioural responses.

Signal evolution and animal cognition:

I am also interested in how rearing environments can have long term effects on animal learning and cognition and how this may have shaped the evolution of complex acoustic signals, such as bird song. Recently, my work has concentrated on how developmental conditions during the sensitive period for song acquisition can affect song learning ability and neural development in several songbird species, reducing male attractiveness.

PhD or MPhil opportunities

• Maternal influences on behavioural development
• Effects of early life conditions on regulatory processes within the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
• Developmental stress and cognition

Current Research Projects

1. Environmental Physiology of Invertebrates

Water balance and osmoregulation in insects. Thermal physiology in relation to microclimate and behaviour, especially in bees and other terrestrial and littoral invertebrates.

2. Insect-Plant Interactions

Pollination ecology. Interactions between pollinators, pests and predators.
Insects as pests on crop plants, and interactions with crop microclimates. Ant deterrence in flowers.

3. Animal behaviour, especially social insects.

Ecology and behaviour of insects, specifically insect-plant interactions and pollination ecology. The constraints acting on pollinators, especially bees, in temperate and arid systems.

4. Invertebrate Evolution and Convergent Evolution.

Invertebrate morphology and fossils; the evolution of basic body plans, and the prevalence of convergent evolution; implications for phylogenetic approaches

MPhil/PhD project opportunities:

Please contact me directly to discuss potential research projects.