Research Group on Ecology, Ethology and Evolution

Description

The group of “Ecology, Ethology and Evolution” gathers researchers from the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology and is dedicated to fundamental and applied research at the interphase between ecology, animal behaviour and evolutionary biology. The aim is to contribute to the scientific knowledge of complex biological phenomena in which the relationship between individuals and their biotic and abiotic environment plays a fundamental role.

Examples include animal communication, sensory ecology, characteristics and behaviours associated with sexual and asexual reproduction, complex life cycles, non-linear population dynamics, response to environmental fluctuation and uncertainty, response to spatial heterogeneity, processes of co-evolution between symbionts, and the effects of anthropogenic factors on organisms.

From the methodological point of view, an integrative approach is used, combining theoretical analysis, laboratory experiments and field experiments and observations, as well as a wide range of conceptual and instrumental techniques: modelling, computational simulation, molecular, microscopic and audiovisual techniques, spectrophotometry, bioacoustics, demography, phylogenetic analysis, determination of parameters, classical and molecular taxonomy, etc.

The emphasis of the group is on basic or fundamental research, but attention is paid to all those branches of applied relevance: toxicity bioassays, aquaculture, population viability analysis, climate change effects, etc. In its researches, the group seeks to solve general, theoretically motivated biological problems using model systems and organisms in which its members are experts.

Goals CT

Fundamental and applied research at the interphase between ecology, animal behaviour and evolutionary biology.

Research lines

Genetic ecology
Genetic structure and population differentiation in continental zooplankton. Local adaptation. Genetic and genomic diversity. Genetic markers associated with adaptive traits. Gene dispersal and flow.
Evolutionary ecology of life cycles
Analysis of life history traits. Adaptive trade-offs and biological efficiency. Sex ecology and modes of reproduction. Sexual inversion in parthenogenetics. Dormancy states and adaptation to temporally variable environments. Multiple bet-hedging strategies and environmental unpredictability.
Species competition and coexistence
Cryptic rotifer species. Distribution and sympatry. Ecological differentiation of species. Competitive relationships and coexistence mediation. Environmental fluctuations and maintenance of diversity. Density-dependent reversal of diapause and competition.
Ecology and Evolution of Symbionts
Processes of coevolution, cospeciation and codiversification in symbionts. Development of methods of cophylogenetic analysis. Ecology of symbiont communities. Use of bipartite networks and functional diversity indices for their characterisation. Study of the impact of invasive hosts on native parasite communities.
Complex population dynamics
Time series analysis of planktonic populations. Non-linear modelling of population dynamics. Population growth equations for complex life cycles. Life table analysis. Age-structured population dynamics. Population viability analysis.
Animal behaviour and communication
Social behaviour and communication in lizards. Chemical communication in lacertids. Evolution of colour vision and colour patterns in lacertids. Dynamic visual signals in lacertids. Acoustic communication in the Iberian wolf. Pheromones and chemical communication in beetles. Mechanisms of colour production.
Population genomics
Study of the genetic diversity of non-model species. in natural populations, by sequencing representative portions of the genome. Speciation and introgression.
Behaviour and evolution
Sexual conflict and sexual selection. Kin selection and sexual conflict. Ecology of sexual selection. Ecology of sexual conflict. Evolution of ageing and life histories in sexes. Drosophila melanogaster.

Management

SERRA GALINDO, MANUEL
PDI-Catedratic/a d'Universitat

Research Group on Ecology, Ethology and Evolution - e3

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