Evolutionary Ecology of Social Interactions

Our research aims to elucidate the mechanisms that generate and maintain diversity in animal behaviour. Our primary objective is to gain a deeper understanding of how behavioural variation influences ecological interactions and evolution in a changing environment. To address these challenges, we employ a multidisciplinary approach, integrating theoretical, statistical, and experimental methods from two fields: behavioural ecology and quantitative genetics.

Our current focus is on clarifying the crucial role played by behavioural plasticity in mediating social interactions among conspecifics. We use Drosophila prolongata as a model organism to explore individual responses to social partners during competitive interactions. Our goals include (1) quantifying the relative contributions of the environment and genetics to the among-individual variation in behavioural plasticity, and (2) determining the extent to which behavioural plasticity in social traits alters the evolutionary response to natural selection.

Group leader: Dr. Tom Ratz

Research themes

• Intraspecific competition and aggression
• Social selection and the evolution of interactive phenotypes
• Behavioural plasticity
• Individual trait variation
• Evolutionary response to selection
• Experimental evolution and artificial selection