This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Evolutionary biologists have developed a number of mathematical models to understand the process of selection on traits that arises from partner preferences. However, tests that can be used to discriminate among these models are lacking, in part because some aspects of the models are difficult to measure directly. This project will develop a novel technique for testing models of selection that result from partner preferences by comparing the predictions of alternative models with data on behavioral (or reproductive) isolation between related species. The technique will extend the power of existing data by applying the statistical approach of maximum likelihood and by using knowledge about the evolutionary relationships among the species. The investigators will test alternative models with available data sets for three divergent groups (salamanders, fishes, and flies). However, the analytical framework developed will be applicable to any set of data on behavioral isolation and for a wide range of alternative models. The investigators will make software to conduct the analysis available online, extend an existing website to illustrate alternative models and conduct a workshop on the methods at a scientific meeting. These components of the project will both provide a better understanding of selection models among empirical researchers and allow them to test alternative models on data from their own organisms of interest.
