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Evolutionary ecology and behaviour

This section considers studies in the areas of evolutionary behaviour and ecology including sexual conflict and selection.

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  1. Stripes and other high contrast patterns found on animals have been hypothesised to cause “motion dazzle”, a type of defensive coloration that operates when in motion, causing predators to misjudge the speed a...

    Authors: Anna E Hughes, Jolyon Troscianko and Martin Stevens
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:201
  2. Studies of insect-plant interactions have provided critical insights into the ecology and evolution of adaptive processes within and among species. Cactophilic Drosophila species have received much attention beca...

    Authors: Camila M Borgonove, Carla B Cavallari, Mateus H Santos, Rafaela Rossetti, Klaus Hartfelder and Maura H Manfrin
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:191
  3. A compelling demonstration of adaptation by natural selection is the ability of parasites to manipulate host behavior. One dramatic example involves fungal species from the genus Ophiocordyceps that control their...

    Authors: Charissa de Bekker, Lauren E Quevillon, Philip B Smith, Kimberly R Fleming, Debashis Ghosh, Andrew D Patterson and David P Hughes
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:166
  4. Social information use is usually considered to lead to ecological convergence among involved con- or heterospecific individuals. However, recent results demonstrate that observers can also actively avoid beha...

    Authors: Jukka T Forsman, Sami M Kivelä, Tuomo Jaakkonen, Janne-Tuomas Seppänen, Lars Gustafsson and Blandine Doligez
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:175
  5. In insect societies, intracolonial genetic variation is predicted to affect both colony efficiency and reproductive skew. However, because the effects of genetic variation on these two colony characteristics h...

    Authors: Satoshi Miyazaki, Miho Yoshimura, Ryota Saiki, Yoshinobu Hayashi, Osamu Kitade, Kazuki Tsuji and Kiyoto Maekawa
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:177
  6. Pigmentation has a long history of investigation in evolutionary biology. In Drosophila melanogaster, latitudinal and altitudinal clines have been found but their underlying causes remain unclear. Moreover, most ...

    Authors: Héloïse Bastide, Amir Yassin, Evan J Johanning and John E Pool
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:179
  7. Female mate choice after mating is a strong force in sexual selection and could lead to coevolution of mating traits between the sexes. How females of different genotypes respond to substances in the male ejac...

    Authors: Takashi Yamane
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:172
  8. The oxidative stress theory of life-history tradeoffs states that oxidative stress caused by damaging free radicals directly underpins tradeoffs between reproduction and longevity by altering the allocation of...

    Authors: Samson W Smith, Leigh C Latta, Dee R Denver and Suzanne Estes
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:161
  9. Salinity plays an important role in shaping coastal marine communities. Near-future climate predictions indicate that salinity will decrease in many shallow coastal areas due to increased precipitation; howeve...

    Authors: Anna-Lisa Wrange, Carl André, Torbjörn Lundh, Ulrika Lind, Anders Blomberg, Per J Jonsson and Jon N Havenhand
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:156
  10. Sexual selection has initially been thought to occur exclusively at the precopulatory stage in terms of contests among males and female mate choice, but research over the last four decades revealed that it oft...

    Authors: Lucas Marie-Orleach, Tim Janicke, Dita B Vizoso, Micha Eichmann and Lukas Schärer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:148
  11. Parasites exert important selective pressures on host life history traits. In birds, feathers are inhabited by numerous microorganisms, some of them being able to degrade feathers or lead to infections. Preeni...

    Authors: Staffan Jacob, Anika Immer, Sarah Leclaire, Nathalie Parthuisot, Christine Ducamp, Gilles Espinasse and Philipp Heeb
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:134
  12. Many animals exhibit variation in resistance to specific natural enemies. Such variation may be encoded in their genomes or derived from infection with protective symbionts. The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, fo...

    Authors: Adam J Martinez, Shannon G Ritter, Matthew R Doremus, Jacob A Russell and Kerry M Oliver
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:127
  13. Oviparous females have three main options to increase their reproductive success: investing into egg number, egg mass and/or egg care. Although allocating resources to either of these three components is known...

    Authors: Lisa K Koch and Joël Meunier
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:125
  14. We investigate the scope for selection at the level of nuclei within fungal individuals (mycelia) of the mutualistic Termitomyces cultivated by fungus-growing termites. Whereas in most basidiomycete fungi the num...

    Authors: Tania Nobre, Bertha Koopmanschap, Johan JP Baars, Anton SM Sonnenberg and Duur K Aanen
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:121
  15. Closely related species often occur in geographic isolation, yet sometimes form contact zones with the potential to hybridize. Pre-zygotic barriers may prevent cross breeding in such contact zones. In East Afr...

    Authors: Martin Husemann, Werner Ulrich and Jan Christian Habel
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:115
  16. Extreme environments can impose strong ecological and evolutionary pressures at a local level. Ectotherms are particularly sensitive to low-temperature environments, which can result in a reduced activity peri...

    Authors: Anna P Muir, Roman Biek and Barbara K Mable
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:110
  17. Competition between spermatozoa from rival males for success in fertilization (i.e., sperm competition) is an important selective force driving the evolution of male reproductive traits and promoting positive ...

    Authors: Alberto Vicens, Maximiliano Tourmente and Eduardo RS Roldan
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:106
  18. Many microbial phenotypes are the product of cooperative interactions among cells, but their putative fitness benefits are often not well understood. In the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, unicellul...

    Authors: jeff smith, David C Queller and Joan E Strassmann
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:105
  19. Divergence between populations in reproductively important features is often vital for speciation. Many studies attempt to identify the cause of population differentiation in phenotype through the study of a s...

    Authors: Courtney L Morgans, Georgina M Cooke and Terry J Ord
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:97
  20. Semelparity and iteroparity are considered to be distinct and alternative life-history strategies, where semelparity is characterized by a single, fatal reproductive episode, and iteroparity by repeated reprod...

    Authors: P William Hughes and Andrew M Simons
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:90
  21. Polyandry is a common mating strategy in animals, increasing female fitness through direct (material) and indirect (genetic) benefits. Most theories about the benefits of polyandry come from studies of terrest...

    Authors: Louis V Plough, Amy Moran and Peter Marko
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:81
  22. In natural communities of cyclical parthenogens, rapid response to environmental change is enabled by switching between two reproduction modes. While long periods of asexual reproduction allow some clones to o...

    Authors: Mingbo Yin, Sabine Gießler, Johanna Griebel and Justyna Wolinska
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:80
  23. In most species, males compete to gain both matings (via pre-copulatory competition) and fertilizations (via post-copulatory competition) to maximize their reproductive success. However, the quantity of resour...

    Authors: Mariona Ferrandiz-Rovira, Jean-François Lemaître, Sophie Lardy, Bernat C López and Aurélie Cohas
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:79
  24. Polytypism in aposematic species is unlikely according to theory, but commonly seen in nature. Ranitomeya imitator is a poison frog species exhibiting polytypic mimicry of three congeneric model species (R. fanta...

    Authors: Adam MM Stuckert, Ralph A Saporito, Pablo J Venegas and Kyle Summers
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:76
  25. Pedigree reconstruction using genetic analysis provides a useful means to estimate fundamental population biology parameters relating to population demography, trait heritability and individual fitness when co...

    Authors: Tutku Aykanat, Susan E Johnston, Deirdre Cotter, Thomas F Cross, Russell Poole, Paulo A Prodőhl, Thomas Reed, Ger Rogan, Philip McGinnity and Craig R Primmer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:68
  26. Pre-zygotic barriers often involve some form of sexual selection, usually interpreted as female choice, as females are typically the choosier sex. However, males typically show some mate preferences, which are...

    Authors: Luana S Maroja, Zachary M McKenzie, Elizabeth Hart, Joy Jing, Erica L Larson and David P Richardson
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:65
  27. It is often proposed that females should select genetically dissimilar mates to maximize offspring genetic diversity and avoid inbreeding. Several recent studies have provided mixed evidence, however, and in s...

    Authors: Coraline Bichet, Dustin J Penn, Yoshan Moodley, Luc Dunoyer, Elise Cellier-Holzem, Marie Belvalette, Arnaud Grégoire, Stéphane Garnier and Gabriele Sorci
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:47
  28. Animals use environmental information to make developmental decisions to maximise their fitness. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans measures its environment to decide between arresting development as dauer larva...

    Authors: Sylvia Anaid Diaz, Vincent Brunet, Guy C Lloyd-Jones, William Spinner, Barney Wharam and Mark Viney
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:46
  29. The genetic and physiological pathways regulating behavior in solitary species are hypothesized to have been co-opted to regulate social behavior in social species. One classic example is the interaction betwe...

    Authors: Etya Amsalem, Osnat Malka, Christina Grozinger and Abraham Hefetz
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:45
  30. The evolution of oogamy from isogamy, an important biological event, can be summarized as follows: morphologically similar gametes (isogametes) differentiated into small “male” and large “female” motile gamete...

    Authors: Hisayoshi Nozaki, Toshihiro K Yamada, Fumio Takahashi, Ryo Matsuzaki and Takashi Nakada
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:37
  31. Coevolution between pairs of different kind of entities, such as providers and users of information, involves reciprocal selection pressures between them as a consequence of their ecological interaction. Pied ...

    Authors: Olli J Loukola, Toni Laaksonen, Janne-Tuomas Seppänen and Jukka T Forsman
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:32
  32. Currently many habitats suffer from quality loss due to environmental change. As a consequence, evolutionary trajectories might shift due to environmental effects and potentially increase extinction risk of re...

    Authors: Vera M Grazer, Marco Demont, Łukasz Michalczyk, Matthew JG Gage and Oliver Y Martin
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:21
  33. Cannibalism is widespread in both vertebrates and invertebrates but its extent is variable between and within species. Cannibalism depends on population density and nutritional conditions, and could be benefic...

    Authors: Ashraf Tayeh, Arnaud Estoup, Eric Lombaert, Thomas Guillemaud, Natalia Kirichenko, Lori Lawson-Handley, Patrick De Clercq and Benoît Facon
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:15
  34. The population genetic structure of a parasite, and consequently its ability to adapt to a given host, is strongly linked to its own life history as well as the life history of its host. While the effects of p...

    Authors: Jaap van Schaik, Gerald Kerth, Nadia Bruyndonckx and Philippe Christe
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014 14:18
  35. Directional selection for growth has resulted in the 9-10th generation of domesticated Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. outgrowing wild salmon by a ratio of approximately 3:1 when reared under standard hatchery con...

    Authors: Monica Favnebøe Solberg, Zhiwei Zhang, Frank Nilsen and Kevin Alan Glover
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:234
  36. The brood of ants and other social insects is highly susceptible to pathogens, particularly those that penetrate the soft larval and pupal cuticle. We here test whether the presence of a pupal cocoon, which oc...

    Authors: Simon Tragust, Line V Ugelvig, Michel Chapuisat, Jürgen Heinze and Sylvia Cremer
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:225
  37. Female mate preferences may be under strong selection in zones of contact between closely related species because of greater variation in available mates and the potential costs of hybridization. We studied fe...

    Authors: Quinn R Shurtliff, Peter J Murphy, Jaclyn D Yeiter and Marjorie D Matocq
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:220
  38. Organisms are predicted to behave more favourably towards relatives, and kin-biased cooperation has been found in all domains of life from bacteria to vertebrates. Cooperation based on genetic recognition cues...

    Authors: Luke Holman, Jelle S van Zweden, Timothy A Linksvayer and Patrizia d’Ettorre
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:211
  39. Scleractinian corals and their algal endosymbionts (genus Symbiodinium) exhibit distinct bathymetric distributions on coral reefs. Yet, few studies have assessed the evolutionary context of these ecological distr...

    Authors: Pim Bongaerts, Pedro R Frade, Julie J Ogier, Kyra B Hay, Judith van Bleijswijk, Norbert Englebert, Mark JA Vermeij, Rolf PM Bak, Petra M Visser and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:205
  40. Many insects are chemically defended against predatory vertebrates and invertebrates. Nevertheless, our understanding of the evolution and diversity of insect defenses remains limited, since most studies have ...

    Authors: Jean-Luc Boevé, Stephan M Blank, Gert Meijer and Tommi Nyman
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:198
  41. Life history tradeoffs may result from temporal and physiological constraints intrinsic to an organism. When faced with limited time and energy, compromises occur and these resources are allocated among essent...

    Authors: Michael M Webber and Javier A Rodríguez-Robles
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:197
  42. Plants have evolved an astonishing array of survival strategies. To defend against insects, for example, damaged plants emit volatile organic compounds that attract the herbivore’s natural enemies. So far, pla...

    Authors: Michael Rostás, Daniel Maag, Makihiko Ikegami and Moshe Inbar
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:193
  43. Repeated colonisation of novel host-plants is believed to be an essential component of the evolutionary success of phytophagous insects. The relative timing between the origin of an insect lineage and the plan...

    Authors: Michael J McLeish, Joseph T Miller and Laurence A Mound
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:188
  44. Maintenance and deployment cost of immunity is high, therefore, it is expected to trade-off with other high cost traits like sexual activity. Previous studies with Drosophila melanogaster show that male’s ability...

    Authors: Vanika Gupta, Zeeshan S Ali and Nagaraj G Prasad
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:185
  45. Despite its short-term costs, behaviour that appears altruistic can increase an individual’s inclusive fitness by earning direct (selfish) and/or indirect (kin-selected) benefits. An evolved preference for oth...

    Authors: David Moore, Stuart Wigby, Sinead English, Sonny Wong, Tamás Székely and Freya Harrison
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:182
  46. The extent of phenotypic differentiation in response to local environmental conditions is a key component of species adaptation and persistence. Understanding the structuring of phenotypic diversity in respons...

    Authors: Diego F Alvarado-Serrano, Lucia Luna and L Lacey Knowles
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013 13:160

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