Research
|
The driving passion of my research is social evolution and inclusive fitness, and I am very interested in the use of empirical techniques to advance novel theories in these fields. To this end, I spent the four years of my PhD extending inclusive fitness theory into the study of sexual conflict, in the laboratories of Prof Leigh Simmons and Assoc/Prof Joseph Tomkins at the Centre for Evolutionary Biology, the University of Western Australia. I then spent a year working on the importance of kin structure for conditional strategies at the University of Exeter, where I was based in the labs of Prof David Hosken and Prof Nina Wedell. Right now, I am back at UWA working on evolutionarily grounded management options for invasive ants. I am looking to focus my research in the realm of social evolution, and am keen to pursue collaborations with interested researchers.You can see more detailed descriptions of my current and past research topics below.
|
Behavioural ecology and invasive ants
Invasive pests pose a catastrophic threat to the natural environment and human prosperity. Answering this threat in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way poses an enormous challenge to science and innovation. Introduced ant species are one of the most pervasive of these pests, draining the economy of billions of dollars, dominating native species, threatening human health and infrastructure, and decimating natural ecosystems. As with many pest species, current efforts to eradicate invasive ants based on pesticide application have proven inefficient and inflict unacceptable costs on the natural environment. My research will use evolutionary biology theory to manipulate the behaviour and social structure of invasive ants, changing the competitive landscape and allowing native species to restore ecosystem balance. To this end, we are investigating the posibility of taking advantage of the reliance of ants on chemical communication to disrupt optimal colony structures and cooperative behaviour.
The kin environment and alternative reproductive tactics
During my position at the University of Exeter, I pursued ideas regarding the importance of poulation kin structure on conditional strategies and alternative reprodcutive tactics. Conditional strategies occur when the fitness payoff an individual receives from expressing a given phenotype (from a range of two or more possible phenotypes) is contingent upon that individual’s environmental circumstances. These models underly many cases of alternative reproductive tactics, where individuals of one sex employ different courses to obtain reproductive opportunities. In many cases, these different phenotypes inflict differing fitness costs upon their rivals. In Acarid mites, for example, males are either fighters that attack and kill their rivals, or scramblers that do not. Based on kin selection theory, which states that when individuals are related to each other competition and conflict should be reduced, we might therefore predict that the expression of alternative reproductive tactics will change with population kin structure. My collaborators and I have been investigating these ideas using the Acarid mite Rhizoglyphus echinopus, and I am excited to share the results of these endeavours soon. Conditional strategies are excellent places to explore all sorts of interesting evolutionary questions regarding the fitness payoffs of different tactics, and I would be keen to hear from anyone who is interested in collaborating on such topics.
Inclusive fitness and the evolution of sexual conflict
Sometimes, female and male fitness optima are mutually exclusive. Photo credit: Jennifer Lymbery
My PhD research was mainly conducted at the interface of social evolution and sexual conflict. When females and males have incompatible fitness optima during reproduction, sexual conflict occurs and can cause the evolution of antagonistic traits that maximise the fitness of one sex while incurring a fitness cost for the opposite sex. Historically, studies of sexual conflict have assumed random interactions and zero relatedness among individuals. Inclusive fitness theory, however, predicts that when individuals are related to each other competition and conflict should be reduced. We use a combination of plastic behavioural experiments, quantitative genetic techniques and experimental evolution to determine whether non-zero relatedness social environments can moderate sexual conflict, using the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. This work has been performed in collaboration with Prof Leigh Simmons, Assoc/Prof Joseph Tomkins and Blake Wyber.
Publications:
Lymbery et al. (2020a)
Lymbery et al. (2020b)
Lymbery et al. (2019)
Lymbery & Simmons (2017)
Publications:
Lymbery et al. (2020a)
Lymbery et al. (2020b)
Lymbery et al. (2019)
Lymbery & Simmons (2017)
Carnivorous plants and their symbionts
The Albany pitcher plant is obscenely charismatic. Photo credit: Jennifer Lymbery
Previously, I have worked on an unusual carnivorous plant - insect symbiosis in the southwest of Western Australia, between the endemic Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis) and the equally unique flightless fly Badisis ambulans. The larvae of this fly live inside the pitchers and obtain nutrients by feeding on the plants' insect prey. Together with Prof Leigh Simmons, Prof Raphael Didham and Prof Stephen Hopper, I conducted a series of field experiments and correlational studies to investigate the nature of this interaction, and possible nutrient benefits or costs to the plants under different conditions.
Publications:
Lymbery et al. (2016)
Publications:
Lymbery et al. (2016)