Postdoctoral Fellowship: Do hotter climates promote the evolution of complex mating displays? Integrating physiology, behavior, & the macroevolution of communication systems

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2024, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports the research and training of the fellow who will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. As the planet warms, it has become critical to understand how variation in temperature influences animal behavior and biodiversity.

This project will investigate how temperature shapes communication—a key behavioral interaction that drives animal diversity and influences species' vulnerability to environmental change. To investigate this multilayered question, the fellow will use a combination of physiological experiments, behavioral trials, and evolutionary analyses to examine how the effects of temperature on the production and function of mating signals have influenced the evolution of mating signals across North America.

By integrating studies of how the environment affects basic physiology, behavioral interactions between organisms, and evolutionary change in communication systems, the project will reveal fundamental processes underlying global patterns of biodiversity and help us predict the effects of temperature change on animal physiology, behavior, and evolution in the future. Through student mentorship and outreach with partners at public and private institutions, the project will also broaden participation from diverse groups of students and trainees and promote environmental stewardship.

This project will investigate how environmental effects on signal phenotypes influence the macroevolution of signals across an extremely diverse genus of jumping spiders. The fellow will combine respirometry and courtship phenotype manipulations to understand how the thermal sensitivity of metabolic rates affects energetically expensive signal production and the outcomes of mate choice.

By examining plastic and evolutionary differences in the courtship between populations found along replicated elevational gradients, these experiments will provide mechanistic insights into how local adaptation in the thermal sensitivity of communication can mediate sublethal breakdowns in reproduction and the potential for population collapse in the wake of climate change. Using leading-edge phylogenetic comparative methods, the fellow will then examine how this temperature-related plasticity biases the macroevolution of jumping spider mating signals across North American climate gradients.

In addition to receiving training in experimental physiology and statistical analysis, the fellow will broaden participation from underrepresented groups through university-based research mentoring and by collaborating with regional institutions to engage public audiences with ongoing climate change research related to animal behavior and evolution.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.