Welcome to the Rubenstein Lab

Our research is integrative in nature and combines studies in ecology, evolution, behavior, and physiology. We study the causes and consequences of living in family groups. We work with African starlings to examine the evolution of family-living by melding long-term studies of social behavior and breeding life history with more mechanistic analyses of stress physiology, sex allocation, immune function, and extrapair paternity. We also study the evolution of sociality in sponge-dwelling snapping shrimp in the lab and in their native Caribbean habitats. Previously, we examined the reproductive physiology and mating behavior of Galapagos marine iguanas, and used stable isotopes to study animal movement patterns. We continue to be interested in the evolution of avian migration and dispersal strategies and use isotopes in our studies of starlings, shrimp, and iguanas. We have also worked with insects and mammals and always continue to explore and work with new systems.

Read about some of the recent starling work in Natural History Magazine.

Selected Publications (complete publication list)

Rubenstein, D.R. and S.-F. Shen. 2009. Reproductive conflict and the costs of social status in cooperatively breeding vertebrates. The American Naturalist 173:650-661.

Rubenstein, D.R. and I.J. Lovette. 2007. Temporal environmental variability drives the evolution of cooperative breeding in birds. Current Biology 17:1414-1419.

Rubenstein, D.R. 2007. Territory quality drives intraspecific patterns in extrapair paternity. Behavioral Ecology 18:1058-1064.

Rubenstein, D.R. 2007. Female extrapair mate choice in a cooperative breeder: trading sex for help and increasing offspring heterozygosity. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274:1895-1903.

Rubenstein, D.R. 2007. Temporal but not spatial environmental variation drives adaptive offspring sex allocation in a plural cooperative breeder. The American Naturalist 170:155-165.

Rubenstein, D.R. 2007. Stress hormones and sociality: integrating social and environmental stressors. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274:967-975.

Rubenstein, D.R. and M. Wikelski. 2005. Steroid hormones and aggression in female Galápagos marine iguanas. Hormones and Behavior 48:329-341.

Rubenstein, D.R. and K.A. Hobson. 2004. From birds to butterflies: animal movement patterns and stable isotopes. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19:256-263.

Rubenstein, D.R. and M. Wikelski. 2003. Seasonal changes in food quality: a proximate cue for reproductive timing in marine iguanas. Ecology 84:3013-3023.

Rubenstein, D.R., C.P. Chamberlain, R.T. Holmes, M.P. Ayres, J.R. Waldbauer, G.R. Graves, and N.C. Tuross. 2002. Linking breeding and wintering ranges of a migratory songbird using stable isotopes. Science 295:1062-1065.

Last updated 19 October 2009
© 2002-2009 Dustin Rubenstein

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