SOCIAL EVOLUTION

environmental uncertainty and animal societies

Our work in cooperatively breeding starlings and weavers examines how variable and unpredictable climates influence social evolution. Using game theory, comparative analyses, and empirical tests, we are exploring how cooperative breeding behavior may be a bet-hedging strategy to reduce environmentally-induced fecundity variance. Additionally, we explore how annual variation in rainfall influences group size and stability, as well as numerous life history and physiological traits.

sexual selection and social competition

We are studying inter and intra-sexual competition and social signaling (song, plumage) in starlings and hummingbirds. Using theoretical models and empirical tests, we are also exploring the interactions between dominance rank, social structure, and stress physiology in starlings and weavers. Finally, we are studying female-female competition in pebble-mound mice and how environmental variation shapes not only social behavior, but infraspecific competition and trait evolution in females.

evolution of social diversity

We are examining the evolution of social diversity in Synalpheus shrimps—which range in social complexity from pairs, to colonies of pairs, to eusocial societies—by quantifying life history variation and exploring the key evolutionary transition, the differentiation of castes, suggested to uniquely define eusocial species.

genome architecture of social phenotypes

We are studying the mechanistic basis of caste differentiation and social phenotypes in eusocial snapping shrimp and cooperative burying beetles by examining role- and population-specific patterns of gene expression and patterns of genetic variation. In addition to exploring the genetic drivers of sociality in shrimp, we are also examining how social living influences the evolution of genome architecture by studying genome size evolution and transposable element accumulation. 

social network structure in fluctuating environments

Grey-capped social weavers have a complex, multi-layer cooperatively breeding society whose dynamics fluctuate annually. We are exploring how the social dynamics (cooperation and conflict) and stability of complex weaver societies are influenced by annual variation in precipitation, and how social network dynamics relate to stress physiology.

ENVIRONMENTAL COPING

adaptation along environmental gradients

We are examining stress physiology, immune function, and patterns of genetic and epigenetic variation in different populations of starlings along temperature and precipitation gradients in the tropics. Additionally, we are exploring color evolution along this rainfall gradient, including not just spectral colors, but also gene expression differences in developing feathers.

a framework for environmental coping

We are developing a theoretical framework that predicts evolutionary responses to environmentally-driven fluctuating selection, and using it to explore the evolution of physiological coping mechanisms, as well as their genetic and epigenetic architectures.

epigenetics, plasticity and environmental variation

We are examining how developmental conditions (both social and environmental) influence social phenotypes, stress physiology, and fitness later in life, and we are exploring DNA methylation as one potential mechanism underlying this relationship in starlings. Although we emphasize the stress access, we also look globally at patterns of DNA methylation across the genome.

cooperation and ecological dominance

We are exploring how cooperative breeding behavior in burying beetles and eusociality in snapping shrimps influences competitive ability against conspecifics, niche breadth and range expansion, ecological generalism vs. specialism, and ecological dominance.