Research
Culling strategies in multi-host and shared pathogen systems
Biological systems where several host species share a common pathogen is widespread (for example, both cattle and badgers are vulnerable to Bovine TB and red and grey squirrels both suffer from the parapoxvirus). Here control (eradication) of the pathogen can be critical, however developing a strategy can be difficult. Problems may include situations where controlling (e.g. culling) all the species is not a viable option and so whether the pathogen can be removed from the system by only controlling a select number of host species. In addition, these problems naturally extend into optimisation problems with an aim of, for example, minimising the number of individuals culled/vaccinated or minimising the total cost.
Co-evolution of mating conflict
Natural selection drives the evolution of species towards an optimum state with respect to their current environment. However sexual conflict over mating can often shift species from such optima as individuals attempt to gain their own way during reproductive encounters. Traits that evolve through sexual conflict can reduce the fitness of the opposite sex. For example, in many insect species, males harass females into accepting unwanted and costly matings; in response females have developed both morphological and behavioural traits that enable them to resist unwanted copulations. This antagonistic co-evolution of male and female traits can result in the exaggeration of traits that reduce the fitness of the species as a whole. The project will involve developing established models of co-evolution so that empirical data can be easily entered into them to test their robustness and gain new insights into sexual conflict, natural selection and their interaction.
Adaptive Dynamics - Trade-offs and invasion plots
Trade-offs are now common place in the area of evolutionary modelling (for example, improving one aspect of a species' physiology no doubt comes at a cost to another). Using the technique Trade-off and invasion plots (TIPs), the evolution of host resistance to parasites and parasite virulence in their attack of the host can be fully explored to determine how their aspects evolve and the influence that different shapes of trade-offs can have.
Adaptive Dynamics - Instability in the population
In many systems, the behaviour at a population level is far from a simple point stable equilibrium level. Seasonality or simple instability can cause a huge range of behaviour from poulation cycles to chaotic behaviour. These differences can cause significant differences at the evolutionary level with unintuitive behaviour occuring where in systems with fairly simple behaviour.
