Animals of all kinds of species form groups. Group-living affects may ecological and evolutionary processes, such as the transmission of disease and information, the strength of predation pressure and resource competition, and the effectiveness of different forms of selection for driving evolutionary change. Associations with family members, mostly the mother and siblings from the same brood, is perhaps the most common form of social living, and is thought to be key for the transition from solitary living to eusociality. Juveniles associating with their mother are faced with the decision to stay, and so remain in a social group, or to leave, and to live a solitary life, and it is the ecological costs and benefits of these two different choices that determine whether more social living will evolve or not (Kramer and Meunier, 2019). However, this decision will also be strongly influenced by the mother, as she provides shelter, can provide food, and in some cases transport. A mother’s influence on the traits of her offspring, beyond those due to directly inherited genetic effects, are known as maternal effects, and can fundamentally change what traits evolve and which do not. Further, siblings can influence each other’s sociability through their behaviours such as aggression or sharing of shelters. The influence of another individual on the traits of a focal individual are known as “indirect effects”, and like maternal effects are very important for trait evolution (McAdam et al., 2014). Both maternal and indirect effects are likely to be ubiquitous in organisms living in family groups, and so could be fundamental in determining the evolvability of traits that facilitate group living, such as sociability and aggression (Kasper et al., 2017). However, how important maternal and indirect effects are for the transition from simple to more complex forms of sociality is not well known.
In this project we will explore how the influence of the mother and other individuals influences social behaviour, the decision to stay or leave a family group, and therefore the evolution of more or less social lifestyles. For this we will use the group-living cockroach Blaptica dubia, a highly tractable study organism for the study of both social behaviour and maternal effects. We will conduct experiments in a laboratory population at the University of Aberdeen to determine what drives individuals to stay in or leave groups, and how this impacts the evolvability of sociality. We will also conduct field work in South America on natural populations of B. dubia to determine the social structure in the wild, how it varies with environmental gradients, and to collect diverse specimens to estimate the degree of genetic variation in traits of interest.
The student will be trained in experimental design, data collection using video camera and automated tracking methods, fieldwork in challenging conditions, genetic analyses, and the writing up and dissemination of scientific results. While there is an initial outline plan for the project, we aim to recruit an ambitious and motivated individual who will determine the direction of the research with guidance from the supervisory team.
Candidate Background: The successful candidate is expected to have a previous degree in Zoology, Animal Behaviour, Evolutionary Biology or similar. Experience conducting research on arthropods (in the lab or field), studying social behaviour, molecular genetics, and experience with the statistical software R are all desirable
More project details are available here: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/quadrat-projects/
How to apply: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/how-to-apply/