Behavioural ecology lab

El contrato se ofertará en la convocatoria “Ayudas para contratos predoctorales para la formación de doctores 2019”. Ver página de la convocatoria aqui

El proyecto de tesis se enmarca en el estudio de los mecanismos responsables de la evolución de las estrategias vitales en animales, para ello se realizan diversos experimentos de campo  en una colonia de la gaviota patiamarilla (Larus michahellis).  La tesis se encuadra como parte del proyecto de investigación SOCIALIFE: Life-history consequences of the social environment during early life” (PGC2018-095412-B-I00 T; IP1: Alberto Velando, IP2: Sin-Yeon Kim) del programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia.

Se valorará:

(1)    Motivación e interés para trabajar con aves marinas en el campo

 (2)    Motivación e interés para aprender técnicas moleculares

(3)    Conocimientos en Ecología Evolutiva y Comportamiento Animal

 (4)    Buen nivel de inglés, oral y escrito

(5)    Expediente académico > 7

Resumen del proyecto

In this four-year project proposal, we provide an experimental framework to examine how the social environment and parental effects interactively influence developmental plasticity. Current theory suggests that, in fluctuating environments, adaptive phenotypes should be adjusted during development based on reliable cues, for example cues transmitted from parents. While researches on developmental plasticity have often been focussed on genetic and non-genetic parental effects, the importance of other social influences than parental effects has been overlooked. The behaviour of the other individuals in the social group may not only influence the state of developing individuals but also generate information about the future social environment and influence developmental plasticity. There is great variation among individuals in behaviour patterns and the extent to which these behaviours change in response to environmental conditions. The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis, which explains the coevolution of physiological, morphological, behavioural and life-history traits, may provides an answer to why some individuals change their behaviour more flexibly than others. One of the key physiological traits in the POLS concept is an individual’s metabolic rate. An individual’s metabolic flexibility may represent its capacity to change its pace-of-life, behaviour and life history in response to environmental conditions. In this project, we propose to study how the combination of parents and the local social environment interactively influences developmental plasticity and explore its mechanisms and consequences by using two vertebrates living in groups, the three-spined stickleback and the yellow-legged gull. In a series of laboratory experiments using three generations of sticklebacks, we will examine (1) how the early social environment shapes pace-of-life (metabolic rate, behaviour, life-history, etc.) in young animals, (2) whether the social environment experienced by parents can shape pace-of-life of offspring through genetic and non-genetic effects, (3) whether individual variation in flexibilities in behaviour and metabolic rates are correlated, and (4) whether the social environment influences the extent to which information about predation risk is transmitted within a group. In field experiments on gulls, we will examine (1) whether social cues alter embryonic developmental pathways and influence behaviour and growth during postnatal life, (2) how early exposure to social cues of environmental stress prepare developing individuals to cope with this stress, and (3) whether maternal substances and early exposure to social cues interactively shape the performance of individuals with a social competitive disadvantage. Finally, we will study the means by which the social environment induces phenotypic plasticity within and between generations by exploring DNA methylation of glucocorticoid receptor gene, expression of glucocorticoid receptor gene and some other hormone genes, and maternal effect through mitochondrial oocyte content.