Concordia University
Ph.D. candidate
Supervisor: James Grant
Grant E. Brown
Grant Brown, Concordia University
Start: 2013-01-07
End: 2016-12-15
Personal page
Personal page 2

Project

Effects of competitor-to-resource ratio, sex, resource type and tempo of predation risk
Contest competition is one of the driving forces contributing to natural selection. Within a given species, competition will determine which individuals get the most fitness both in terms of reproductive success (i.e. mating competition) and survival (i.e. foraging competition). Factors influencing competition have been studied, but in isolation from one another in most cases. The aim of this project is to explore the potential interactions of some of these factors (i.e. resource type, operational sex-ratio, sex, chronic and acute predation risk) in a single study using Trinidadian guppies as a model. This will allow a better comprehension of intraspecific competition patterns in the wild, as well as indirectly improve our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of natural selection.

Keywords

Behavioral Ecology, competition, competitor-to-resource ratio, sex role, resource type, predation risk, guppies, population differences

Publications

1- Local predation risk shapes spatial and foraging neophobia patterns in Trinidadian guppies
Elvidge, Chris K., Pierre J.C. Chuard, Grant E. Brown
2016 Current Zoology

2- The effects of adult sex ratio on mating competition in male and female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in two wild populations
Chuard, Pierre J.C., Grant E. Brown, James W.A. Grant
2016 Behavioural Processes