About the Project
About the award
This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus six Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Met Office, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/
Location: Streatham Campus, Exeter
Project description:
Our aim is to understand the reproductive behavior of animals of species in which offspring stay and help their parents raise siblings. Many species of mammals and birds do this, along with many insects, especially bees, ants and wasps. There is much variation in behaviour between and within species that is currently poorly understood. Life-history theory predicts how individual variation and environmental differences affect reproductive decisions such as age at maturity, fecundity and longevity. However, this theory does not apply to cooperative breeders because it ignores conflict over reproduction within groups. This gap is highly problematic because cooperative breeders and eusocial species often play critical roles in ecosystems (e.g. pollination, seed dispersal, crop herbivory, pest predation). This is impeding our ability to predict how organisms respond to changing environments, and their interactions with other species. This knowledge is imperative for securing the future of our natural resources.
Project Aims and Methods
We will combine computational models with comparative analyses using existing data on many species. We will focus on three types of variation that have been neglected: differences between individuals in relatedness, size, etc.; variation over time and space of food and nest site availability; varying competition among groups.
In three theoretical studies, we will assess the influence of variation on within-group conflict to (1) consider how the possibility of becoming the dominant affects what subordinates might do; (2) ask why a reproductive would join with another or attempt to take-over a nest when the availability of nest sites varies over space or time; (3) predict what happens when dominant individuals can allow other individuals to reproduce in exchange for help, under competition from other groups.
We will test our predictions across species using meta-analysis that control for evolutionary history. We will exploit the vast amount of data on reproductive strategies and the characteristics of societies and ecology in cooperative breeders, from ants to meerkats.
We will predict how cooperatively breeding species might be affected by environmental changes, including nest-site availability and alterations to climate. By simulating different species, we can identify which species are most likely to need conserving.
Candidate
The most suitable candidate would be a maths/physics/computer science graduate wanting to work in biology. This fits RCUK’s push to increase quantitative skills in the life sciences. The necessary skills could be learnt by a numerate biological graduate, with guidance from the supervisors.
Training
- Concepts for understanding behaviour, especially game theory, which is the foundation of our understanding of social interactions but also used in economics and politics.
- Mathematical and computational approaches to understanding behaviour, using calculus and programming in Matlab, R, or C++, which are all widely used within and without academia.
- Dynamic programming approaches to understanding state-dependent behaviour, which was pioneered at Bristol by collaborators of both supervisors.
- Advanced statistical techniques for comparative analysis: phylogenetically controlled analyses with R statistical packages. Higginson has published comparative analyses, and Radford is doing them as part of his ERC Consolidator grant.
Funding Notes
The studentships will provide funding for a stipend which is currently £14,553 per annum for 2017-2018, research costs and UK/EU tuition fees at Research Council UK rates for 42 months (3.5 years) for full-time students, pro rata for part-time students.
References
Daly D, Higginson AD, Dong C, Ruxton GD, Speed MP (2012) Density-dependent investment in costly antipredator defences: An explanation for the weak survival benefit of group living. Ecol Lett 15: 576–583.
Feró O, Stephens PA, Barta Z, McNamara JM, Houston AI (2008). Optimal annual routines: New tools for conservation biology? Ecol Appl 18: 1563–1577.
Hawn, AT, Radford AN, Du Plessis MA (2007) Delayed breeding affects lifetime reproductive success differently in male and female green woodhoopoes. Curr Biol 17: 844–849.
Higginson AD, de Wert L, Rowland HM, Ruxton GD, Speed MP (2012) Masquerade is associated with polyphagy and larval overwintering in the Lepidoptera. Biol J Linn Soc 106: 90–103.
Higginson AD (2017) Conflict over previously abundant resources may explain between-species differences in declines: The anthropogenic competition hypothesis. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 71: 99.
Ito K, McNamara, JM, Yamauchi A, Higginson AD (2017) The evolution of cooperation by negotiation in noisy world. J Evol Biol 30: 603–615
Leadbeater E, Carruthers JM, Green JP, Rosser NS, Field J (2011). Nest inheritance is the missing source of direct fitness in a primitively eusocial insect. Science 333: 874–876.
McNamara JM (2013). Towards a richer evolutionary game theory. J R Soc Inter 10 20130544.
Radford AN, Majolo B, Aureli F (2016) Within-group behavioural consequences of between-group conflict: a prospective review. Proc R Soc Lond B 283: 20161567.