CAREER: Social and coevolutionary feedbacks between mating and parental investment: Insights from theory and data

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Understanding why organisms cooperate or are in conflict with one another is one of the most basic questions within evolutionary biology and animal behavior. However, despite extensive research on the subject, it remains difficult to predict a priori whether a particular social interaction will involve cooperation or conflict among individuals or to know how these social interactions affect evolutionary patterns. These difficulties demonstrate the need for a greater connection between theory and data on social interactions in nature. Some of the most basic yet fascinating social interactions among organisms occur during reproduction where individuals may compete with one another, select among potential mates and interact during the provisioning and care of young. This project uses a combination of mathematical theory and experiments in the wild to examine how patterns of mating and parental care are interconnected through social interactions and evolutionary dynamics among males and females. The predictions of this novel theory will then be tested in the ocellated wrasse, a fish where interactions during mating and parental care involve elements of both conflict and cooperation and where existing theory cannot explain observed patterns. Using experiments that manipulate the social environment experienced by both males and females, this project will examine changes in individual behavior, reproduction and social interactions and ask what determines whether conflict or cooperation arises between males and females during reproduction. This project will expose high school interns, undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to a range of research methods including mathematical modeling, genetics and field experiments. However, these young scientists will also be directly involved in the teaching and mentorship of other young scientists. This project will therefore increase our general understanding of social interactions, conflict and cooperation while training young scientists to be excellent scientists, teachers and mentors.