International Research Fellowship Program: The Role of Resource Competition and Density Dependence in Sexual Selection Theory

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0701286KlugThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Hope M. Klug to work with Dr. Hanna Kokko at the University of Helsinki in Finland.Sexual selection (i.e. the theory that competition between members of a sex for mates leads to variation in reproductive success, or the process by which this occurs) is one of the most fundamental concepts of evolutionary biology. However, there is still much debate and confusion surrounding the founding principles of sexual selection theory. Such debate is in part due to the failure of sexual selection theory to explicitly incorporate population-level processes (such as competition for non-mate resources, effects of absolute population density) which are typically thought to be only under natural selection. By ignoring such factors, current measures of sexual selection ignore whole classes of intra-sexual competition that are directly tied to reproductive success. The goal of this project is to evaluate the relative importance of resource competition and density-dependence on the opportunity for sexual selection through the use of two mathematical models and two experiments using the sand goby. Specifically, this work will 1) use mathematical modeling to determine a range of factors potentially affecting sexual selection, compare my predictions to those of existing theory, and refine predictions of sexual selection theory (Model 1); 2) evaluate how such effects are manifested in nature (Expts. 1 & 2); and 3) merge theoretical predictions and empirical findings in a general, yet synthetic, model of sexual selection to isolate the most pivotal factors affecting sexual selection. This work is being done in collaboration with Dr. Hanna Kokko, who is one of the world's leaders in theoretical evolutionary ecology. Dr. Kokko is a professor at the University of Helsinki, which is well-known for its programs and research groups focusing on evolution and ecology. Additionally, the University of Helsinki maintains Tvarminne Zoological Station, where the proposed experiments are being conducted.