FROM INDIVIDUALS TO POPULATIONS: FEMALE DECISIONS AND GROUP SIZE VARIATION IN BARN SWALLOWS PROJECT SUMMARY Using information gathered experimentally on the individual habitat- and mate-selection decisions of barn swallows to model population-level patterns of group size variation, this study offers a new perspective for examining the causes and consequences of group breeding. The samples necessary to evaluate the relationship between a known signal of individual quality, feather coloration, and the social and genetic mate choice of females across different group sizes were collected during a field experiment in 2002. Funds are requested to conduct genetic parentage analyses using variation in five polymorphic microsatellite loci. These data will (1) provide information about the differences between social and genetic mates selection and whether these vary with group size; (2) are necessary to parameterize the mate selection rules for an agent-based model; and (3) will also add to our knowledge of the effects of density on female mate choice decisions, a relationship that has only once been examined experimentally and has potentially large impacts on sexual selection. Additionally, the genotype data will be used for the independent honor's thesis of a Cornell undergraduate and the DNA samples will be deposited in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Genetics Facility and made widely available to other researchers.
