RIG: Experimental evolution and phenotypic plasticity of reproductive behavior

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

Behavior has often been argued to be the first level of response of animal populations to new environments, changing before other traits. A great deal of previous research has documented existing geographic and environmental variation in behavior, but there have been relatively few opportunities to examine the role of behavior changes during contemporary shifts of populations to new environments. This project will take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to monitor changes in reproductive behavior during an experimental introduction of Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from one ecological environment where predation pressure is relatively high to another environment where predation pressure is relatively low. There is a deep comparative literature exploring the way that reproductive traits of guppies, such as male color patterns, male mating tactics and female preferences for male traits, vary with predation pressure across streams, setting up a predictive framework for this work. The results of this project are expected to highlight the way that behavioral changes, through both flexible modification and genetic evolution, allow animals to adapt to new environmental conditions. The findings of this research will have implications for biological invasions and conservation biology as animal populations respond behaviorally to increasingly modified environments caused by human disturbance and global change. This work will have broader implications for the participation of minorities in science, not only through the involvement of a Hispanic principle investigator, but more importantly through graduate advising, undergraduate mentoring and education at the K-12 level. This project will help to increase the participation of minority students in the biological sciences at Colorado State University and will include the development of a workshop program to bring guppy behavior and experimental biology to K-12 classrooms in Colorado.