Developing theory that captures the complexity of biological systems is essential for understanding current patterns and predicting future trajectories. This project will develop a novel theoretical approach that integrates models from evolution, ecology and behavior to predict how interacting processes affect social interactions and individual and population-level patterns of reproduction and survival. This theory will then be used to examine two key issues in biology: the evolution and ecology of cooperation and conflict and the effect of environmental change on wild populations.
This integrative method has broad relevance within biology and for understanding social behavior more generally. Theory examining how organisms respond to environmental change is also relevant to conservation and management. For example, we now know that commercial fisheries have evolutionary, behavioral and ecological effects on wild populations. Yet, existing models cannot predict how these dynamics interact to affect populations and their management. Undergraduates, graduate students and one postdoctoral fellow will be trained to use and apply the resulting theory and models. To reach beyond academia, interactive computer programs demonstrating the role of theory in biology and summer internships will be developed for an after-school science education program that targets high school students from groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering.
