What happens if a shark suddenly finds itself with an abundance of food? Does it grow more rapidly, produce more offspring, or become better equipped to handle environmental stress? These aren’t just intriguing questions; they are vital for conservation efforts. Our recent research reveals that elasmobranchs (the group that includes sharks, skates and rays) don’t…
Category: Research blog posts
Tiny tubeworms, big warnings: life-history clues in changing estuaries
If you want to know how an ecosystem is faring, look to its smallest residents. In estuarine and coastal habitats—those margins between land and sea where life can be tough—marine tubeworms are quietly revealing more than just their presence. They may be offering early warnings that a habitat is heading towards collapse. Shifting traits, hidden…
Shaping the pace-of-life: what’s the role of development in evolution?
Mainstream evolution theory suggests that genes and the environment shape how organisms look and behave, but how they grow up also matters. What is the gene-centred view of evolution? The gene-centric view of evolution assumes that genes in interaction with the environment determine how living organisms look and behave. This theory is also known as gene selection…
Behind the paper: The DEBBIES Dataset to study Life Histories across Ectotherms*
A story of how small student projects become more than the sum of their parts in the DEBBIES dataset of ectotherm life history traits. * Smallegange, I.M., Lucas, S. DEBBIES Dataset to study Life Histories across Ectotherms. Sci Data 11, 153 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-02986-x It is 2017 and I just got a paper accepted, in which we presented…
Behind the paper: Integrating developmental plasticity into eco-evolutionary population dynamics *
A story that starts out claiming that alternative phenotypes are excellent to study eco-evolutionary feedbacks, but ditches this idea to end on the notion that eco-evolutionary change is centred around evolving developmental systems. It is a personal journey of stepping out of the comfort zone of mainstream eco-evolutionary thinking, and of formulating arguments to convince…
How do we predict marine megafauna populations to respond to environmental change?
A 15 min talk can be found here that explains why unusually paced life history strategies of marine megafauna drive atypical sensitivities to environmental change. The talk accompanies the following paper: Smallegange IM, Flotats Avilés M, Eustache K. 2020. Unusually paced life history strategies of marine megafauna drive atypical sensitivities to environmental variability. Frontiers in…
A slow pace of life makes an estuarine and marine animal more sensitive to unpredictable climate variations
By Isabel Smallegange & Matty Berg. Originally published in Amsterdam Science 11(3). Climate variability is increasing. How will this affect different plant and animal species? The answer to this question is important to inform conservation strategies. Our research shows that we should not rely solely on big-data research to find the answer. Instead we should…
A podcast on mites, mantas and eco-evolutionary dynamics – with The Human Odyssey
Jamie and Skander from The Human Odyssey interviewed me to discuss population dynamics around bulb mites, beach hoppers and manta rays, as well as what it means for certain individuals to evolve certain traits. A very enjoyable chat! You can listen to it here.
Big data also need big concepts
Big data In biology, data on species abundance, diversity and traits are collected within large, international collaborative projects, citizen science projects, and permanent monitoring stations. These data are made openly available in big biodiversity databases: big data. Below I highlight some problems that big data approaches can have, which is particularly worrying if analysis outcomes are…
Lovers and fighters, and the difficulties of understanding their coexistence
Myriad species exist where males within the same population display alternative morphologies, often referred to as minors and majors (“lovers and fighters”), that are associated with different ways of gaining access to mates. Their coexistence is typically explained using sexual selection theory. However, other explanations exist, but they have not been explored in great depth…
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