Difference between revisions of "Kat Shaw"

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What is especially interesting about these fish is that they have a very active social life.  Male threespines build nests on the substrate and exhibit a nuptial coloration to attract females and signal territoriality to other males.  When males spot a gravid female, they often perform a courtship dance and if the female is interested, she will enter the nest and leave a clutch of eggs for the male to fertilize.  The male may do this dance until he collects clutches from several females.  He then provides all parental care for the eggs, fanning oxygen over the eggs with his fins as they develop.  Males in some populations are very territorial and actively defend their nests and fry from intruders.
 
What is especially interesting about these fish is that they have a very active social life.  Male threespines build nests on the substrate and exhibit a nuptial coloration to attract females and signal territoriality to other males.  When males spot a gravid female, they often perform a courtship dance and if the female is interested, she will enter the nest and leave a clutch of eggs for the male to fertilize.  The male may do this dance until he collects clutches from several females.  He then provides all parental care for the eggs, fanning oxygen over the eggs with his fins as they develop.  Males in some populations are very territorial and actively defend their nests and fry from intruders.
  
Conspicuousness of courtship depends on potential threats to the nest in some population.  If large foraging groups of stickleback are present in a population they may cannibalize young in nests that they encounter.  Males in cannibalistic populations often utilize a less conspicuous courtship display and perform behaviors (diversionary displays) to distract groups away from a territory containing a nest and young.  Comparisons of courtship intensity in populations with varying levels of cannibalism have shown that some populations are more plastic in their behavioral response than others.  Males from populations in which some degree of cannibalism is present show an increase in courtship intensity when observed under laboratory conditions (where the threat of cannibalism is absent) as compared to observations under field conditions (where individuals experience foraging groups).  This reaction norm was related to population type in that the population experiencing the greatest frequency of foraging groups showed the smallest increase in conspicuous courtship under laboratory conditions.  Males from a population in which no large foraging groups form showed consistently high courtship intensity under both field and lab conditions.  Preliminary results involving lab-reared individuals from the low cannibalism and high cannibalism populations mirror the results of wild-caught fish suggesting an underlying genetic component to the difference in courtship intensity (see Shaw et al. 2007).  Further studies on the effects of cannibalism on behavior under laboratory conditions are being carried out by students at Clark University.  This will help determine the extent to which behavioral variation is exhibited upon exposure to foraging groups under standardized conditions.
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Conspicuousness of courtship depends on potential threats to the nest in some population.  If large foraging groups of stickleback are present in a population they may cannibalize young in nests that they encounter.  Males in cannibalistic populations often utilize a less conspicuous courtship display and perform behaviors (diversionary displays) to distract groups away from a territory containing a nest and young.  Comparisons of courtship intensity in populations with varying levels of cannibalism have shown that some populations are more plastic in their behavioral response than others.  Males from populations in which some degree of cannibalism is present show an increase in courtship intensity when observed under laboratory conditions (where the threat of cannibalism is absent) as compared to observations under field conditions (where individuals experience foraging groups).  This reaction norm is related to population type in that the population experiencing the greatest frequency of foraging groups show the smallest increase in conspicuous courtship under laboratory conditions.  Males from a population in which no large foraging groups form show consistently high courtship intensity under both field and lab conditions.  Preliminary results involving lab-reared individuals from the low cannibalism and high cannibalism populations mirror the results of wild-caught fish suggesting an underlying genetic component to the difference in courtship intensity (see Shaw et al. 2007).  Further studies on the effects of cannibalism on behavior under laboratory conditions are being carried out by students at Clark University.  This will help determine the extent to which behavioral variation is exhibited upon exposure to foraging groups under standardized conditions.
  
 
===Publications:===
 
===Publications:===

Revision as of 18:42, 1 February 2008

Katherine Shaw, Doctoral Student

B.A./M.A. (2005) Clark University, Department of Biology

Doctoral Student (2005 - Present) University of Connecticut, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Contact Info:

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

75 North Eagleville Rd, U-43

Storrs, CT 06269

_______________________________________________

Office: TLS 363

Voice: (860) 486-4638

Fax: (860) 486-6364

Email: katherine.shaw@uconn.edu

Advisor: Carl Schlichting

Interests:

Behavioral ecology, phenotypic plasticity, ancestral behavioral plasticity, alternative reproductive tactics, fish biology, Gasterosteid behavior


Research:

There are a number of stickleback species (Family: Gasterosteidae), many named for their number of dorsal spines (threespine, fourspine, ninespine, fifteenspine!). I've spent the last few years working with threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L) in British Columbia and Alaska, specifically studying population differences in reproductive behavior. Marine populations of threespines invaded freshwater environments during the last glacial recession between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago. Depending on the type of aquatic habitat invaded, populations have come to differ in morphology and behavior. This is especially interesting because, not only does it tell us much about how environment affects morphology and behavior but, since the ancestral (marine) populations have changed little in the last 20,000 years, we can determine the directionality of behavior and morphological changes in the more derived, freshwater populations.

What is especially interesting about these fish is that they have a very active social life. Male threespines build nests on the substrate and exhibit a nuptial coloration to attract females and signal territoriality to other males. When males spot a gravid female, they often perform a courtship dance and if the female is interested, she will enter the nest and leave a clutch of eggs for the male to fertilize. The male may do this dance until he collects clutches from several females. He then provides all parental care for the eggs, fanning oxygen over the eggs with his fins as they develop. Males in some populations are very territorial and actively defend their nests and fry from intruders.

Conspicuousness of courtship depends on potential threats to the nest in some population. If large foraging groups of stickleback are present in a population they may cannibalize young in nests that they encounter. Males in cannibalistic populations often utilize a less conspicuous courtship display and perform behaviors (diversionary displays) to distract groups away from a territory containing a nest and young. Comparisons of courtship intensity in populations with varying levels of cannibalism have shown that some populations are more plastic in their behavioral response than others. Males from populations in which some degree of cannibalism is present show an increase in courtship intensity when observed under laboratory conditions (where the threat of cannibalism is absent) as compared to observations under field conditions (where individuals experience foraging groups). This reaction norm is related to population type in that the population experiencing the greatest frequency of foraging groups show the smallest increase in conspicuous courtship under laboratory conditions. Males from a population in which no large foraging groups form show consistently high courtship intensity under both field and lab conditions. Preliminary results involving lab-reared individuals from the low cannibalism and high cannibalism populations mirror the results of wild-caught fish suggesting an underlying genetic component to the difference in courtship intensity (see Shaw et al. 2007). Further studies on the effects of cannibalism on behavior under laboratory conditions are being carried out by students at Clark University. This will help determine the extent to which behavioral variation is exhibited upon exposure to foraging groups under standardized conditions.

Publications:

Foster, S.A., K.A. Shaw, K.L. Robert, J. A. Baker. 2008. Benthic, limnetic and oceanic threespine stickleback: Profiles of reproductive behavior. Behaviour, in press.

Shaw, K.A., M.L. Scotti, S.A. Foster. 2007. Ancestral plasticity and the evolutionary diversification of courtship behaviour in threespine sticklebacks. Animal Behaviour 73: 415 – 422.