Title: Hormones as Mediators of Life History Tradeoffs Over Evolutionary Time
Tradeoffs between the future well-being of an organism and investment in offspring represent a hallmark of biological diversity. Much research has focused either on the evolutionary reasons to expect certain tradeoffs or the physiological mediation of individual life history traits. Recent research suggests that individual hormones regulate multiple life history traits. However, it is unclear whether the multifaceted role hormones play represents an adaptation, or an unavoidable result of a limited number of available physiological mechanisms. The research will compare the results of evolutionary simulations to novel empirical data to test these contrasting hypotheses. The proposed research makes use of butterflies as a model due to the extensive natural history information available for many species, combined with their experimental tractability.
This research represents a potentially transformative contribution to the understanding of how hormones mediate life history tradeoffs, and how these relationships evolve. In addition to the research aims, the fellow will design a blog incorporating stop-motion animation to present training objectives to a wider audience in an entertaining format. The fellow will mentor over ten undergraduates who will have opportunities to develop related independent projects. During the final year of funding, the fellow will be involved in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses. A team of mentors will train the fellow in new laboratory and field skills, mathematical modeling, and computer programming.
