Life History Adaptation in Fishes: Male Mating Strategies in Species with Paternal Care

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Evolutionary biologists assume that natural selection molds an organism's phenotype (i.e. morphology, physiology, development, behavior) in such a way that maximizes its survival and reproduction. However, physiological constraints result in a tradeoff between survival and reproduction. This conceptual framework has provided many insights into understanding behaviors associated with survival, such as feeding and predator avoidance, versus behaviors associated with reproduction, such mating and parental care. The proposed research examines physiological tradeoffs between survival and reproduction in fishes, and explores the implications these tradeoffs have for behavior. The PI will examine parental care, adoption, and cannibalism as a suite of reproductive tactics favored by natural selection. The approach is to model the phenomenon mathematically, and to test the model's predictions experimentally. The basic benefit of this research will be new insights into the evolution of morphology, physiology, and behavior. The applied benefits of the research are to fisheries biology and aquaculture, which depend on basic knowledge of life history evolution, toxicology, which uses the same species (the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas) in bioassays.