Sexual signalling and parental care: A life-history perspective. I will use a fish, the Australian desert goby, to gain pivotal insights into male reproductive investment. Under-appreciated as potential study subjects, desert gobies are ideal because males must make important reproductive decisions regarding how much effort to spend on mate attraction and parental care but, importantly, they must do so within the constraints imposed by desert-living. The likely impact of my work in the field of ....Sexual signalling and parental care: A life-history perspective. I will use a fish, the Australian desert goby, to gain pivotal insights into male reproductive investment. Under-appreciated as potential study subjects, desert gobies are ideal because males must make important reproductive decisions regarding how much effort to spend on mate attraction and parental care but, importantly, they must do so within the constraints imposed by desert-living. The likely impact of my work in the field of behavioural ecology will improve Australia's research capacity and profile. By using an Australian study species, my research will also raise awareness and understanding of extraordinary fishes living in habitats vulnerable to human impact. Read moreRead less
Individual behaviour and collective order: the traffic dynamics of ants. We are investigating the properties of traffic flow in ant colonies. Ants seem to meet their transportation needs without traffic congestion or complex centralised control. By discovering how ants accomplish this, we increase our understanding of social behaviour in the natural world, and also provide the basic research on which applied solutions to human traffic problems can be based.
The role of mothers in the evolution of immunity. This project will take a fresh approach to studying disease by addressing the role that mothers play in immune system evolution. This project will make a significant contribution to our nation's research capacity and international scientific reputation, by delivering cutting-edge scientific results that resolve outstanding questions in evolutionary biology.
Gender bender': the impact of endocrine disrupting pollutants on sexual selection. Research into the impacts of pollution on animal reproductive behaviour is crucial if we are to understand species' capacity to adapt to rapidly changing environments, particularly to those that are subject to the impact of human activity. The outcomes of this study will be an important step in learning how to improve the management of biodiversity.
Wildlife responses to endocrine disruptors. This project aims to uncover how a ubiquitous agricultural endocrine disruptor affects development, survival and reproduction in frogs. Widespread pollution by endocrine disrupting chemicals poses a serious threat to wildlife, human health, and the environment. This project will integrate laboratory- and field-based experiments to provide insights into how aquatic contamination by endocrine disruptors can affect vulnerable early life stages and, in tur ....Wildlife responses to endocrine disruptors. This project aims to uncover how a ubiquitous agricultural endocrine disruptor affects development, survival and reproduction in frogs. Widespread pollution by endocrine disrupting chemicals poses a serious threat to wildlife, human health, and the environment. This project will integrate laboratory- and field-based experiments to provide insights into how aquatic contamination by endocrine disruptors can affect vulnerable early life stages and, in turn, adult performance and reproduction. The findings will add significantly to understanding the impact of chemical pollution on wildlife responses to human altered environments.Read moreRead less
Behaviour and evolutionary responses to pharmaceutical pollution. This project aims to uncover how a ubiquitous pharmaceutical pollutant – fluoxetine, known as Prozac – alters the course of reproduction and sexual selection in a freshwater fish. Drugs used in human and veterinary medicine enter the environment and pose a serious threat to wildlife. The project plans to integrate morphological, behavioural, and experimental evolution approaches to yield insights into how fluoxetine affects sexual ....Behaviour and evolutionary responses to pharmaceutical pollution. This project aims to uncover how a ubiquitous pharmaceutical pollutant – fluoxetine, known as Prozac – alters the course of reproduction and sexual selection in a freshwater fish. Drugs used in human and veterinary medicine enter the environment and pose a serious threat to wildlife. The project plans to integrate morphological, behavioural, and experimental evolution approaches to yield insights into how fluoxetine affects sexual traits and behaviours, and how this in turn can affect offspring viability and the evolutionary process. Findings are expected to add to our understanding of how species respond to rapidly changing environments, with consequences for the persistence of populations and the survival of species in the wild.Read moreRead less
Immune defense, disease and damage control in the wild. Immune defences are vital for resistance against infections, but are an overlooked component of disease dynamics in the wild. The project aims to use a model system of long-term studied wild birds to investigate causes of individual variation in innate immunity, the critical first-line-of-defence against new infections. The results may show how immune dynamics are linked to disease, aging, reproduction and longevity and to what extent this ....Immune defense, disease and damage control in the wild. Immune defences are vital for resistance against infections, but are an overlooked component of disease dynamics in the wild. The project aims to use a model system of long-term studied wild birds to investigate causes of individual variation in innate immunity, the critical first-line-of-defence against new infections. The results may show how immune dynamics are linked to disease, aging, reproduction and longevity and to what extent this is environmentally-determined or inherited (its adaptive potential). The outcomes could provide broadly generalizable insights into interactions between the immune system and the environment, and may identify risk factors for vulnerability to novel infectious diseases.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101853
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$356,000.00
Summary
One genome but two sexes: Conflict and the evolution of sexual dimorphism. How can males and females display striking sex differences, when they primarily share the same set of genes? By experimentally evolving the degree of sexual dimorphism in Drosophila melanogaster, this project endeavours to address key issues at the heart of evolutionary biology. This project aims to deliver a novel, data-rich resource with which to explore the mechanisms and consequences of sexual dimorphism evolution, to ....One genome but two sexes: Conflict and the evolution of sexual dimorphism. How can males and females display striking sex differences, when they primarily share the same set of genes? By experimentally evolving the degree of sexual dimorphism in Drosophila melanogaster, this project endeavours to address key issues at the heart of evolutionary biology. This project aims to deliver a novel, data-rich resource with which to explore the mechanisms and consequences of sexual dimorphism evolution, to expand current understanding of this fundamental evolutionary paradox.Read moreRead less
Evolutionary signficance of sexual conflict in orb-web spiders. Multiple mating by females creates intense competition between ejaculates over the fertilisation of her eggs, and has a profound influence on male and female life history and mating strategies. In orb-web spiders, sexual cannibalism creates further conflicts of interest because the male may forfeit future matings. This project examines how life-history and mating strategies interact in these spiders, by identifying the mechanisms t ....Evolutionary signficance of sexual conflict in orb-web spiders. Multiple mating by females creates intense competition between ejaculates over the fertilisation of her eggs, and has a profound influence on male and female life history and mating strategies. In orb-web spiders, sexual cannibalism creates further conflicts of interest because the male may forfeit future matings. This project examines how life-history and mating strategies interact in these spiders, by identifying the mechanisms that determine the outcome of sperm competition; the selection pressures favouring sexual size dimorphism and male size variation; the influence of sexual cannibalism on male mating strategies; and the relationship between female feeding history and her mating behaviour.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101075
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,837.00
Summary
Ecophysiology and evolution of sleep and adaptive sleeplessness. The function of sleep is enigmatic, even though the treatment of costly sleep disorders requires an understanding of the function that sleep performs. This project approaches this enigma with the comprehensive study of sleep in diverse animals to examine ecological-induced plasticity and evolution of sleep. Using innovative technologies in real-world situations, this project will spearhead the study of sleep ecophysiology to identi ....Ecophysiology and evolution of sleep and adaptive sleeplessness. The function of sleep is enigmatic, even though the treatment of costly sleep disorders requires an understanding of the function that sleep performs. This project approaches this enigma with the comprehensive study of sleep in diverse animals to examine ecological-induced plasticity and evolution of sleep. Using innovative technologies in real-world situations, this project will spearhead the study of sleep ecophysiology to identify animals that are resilient to the negative effects of sleep loss, and will determine whether the evolution of new types of animal was associated with the co-evolution of new types of sleep. The outcomes will have wide-ranging implications for our view of sleep function, prescriptions for an optimal amount of sleep and human health and wellbeing.Read moreRead less