RESEARCH

I am interested in the evolution of reproductive behavior, and use field experiments to test current theory in behavioral, community, and conservation ecology. Tropical research at sites in Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico focuses on a guild of macropredators in water-filled tree holes (giant damselflies, tadpoles of a poison-arrow frog, and predatory larvae of a mosquito). Temperate field research is focused on the evolution and maintenance of sex-specific color polymorphism in odonates. Research topics include the interplay of selective pressures on adults and larvae, sexual conflict, sexual signalling and speciation.

Examples of some questions that have directed my research:

How do selective pressures on larvae influence adult behavior?
How does interspecific competition affect adult reproductive strategies?
How does a guild of 5 top predators coexist in water-filled tree holes, a limiting resource?
How does selection on female behavior underlie male mating patterns?
How might sexual signalling promote speciation?
How do adult and larval behaviors affect the genetic structure of populations in fragmented forests?

In collaboration with Dr. Heike Hadrys (TiHo Hannover, Germany), we use molecular techniques to assess parentage and genetic divergence among populations. In collaboration with Dr. Tom Schultz (Denison University), we investigate proximate and ultimate mechanisms of sexual signaling.