The environment affects many aspects of animal reproduction. Temperature and aridity are particularly important factors shaping how individuals compete with reproductive rivals and attract potential mates. These observations raise important questions that I address in my research:
Related Publications: Leith et al 2022, Ecology Letters; Leith et al. 2021, Current Opinion in Insect Science.
|
Most organisms, like insects and arachnids, interact with temperature variation at small spatial scales. The temperatures that insects experience on individual plant stems can be just as variable (if not even more so!) than the temperatures larger animals experience as they travel through forests, grasslands, and glades.
|
Fine-scale microclimates, thermoregulatory behavior, and breakdowns in reproduction |
Nearly all animals thermoregulate by selecting suitable habitat temperatures. However, our understanding of how animals thermoregulate is limited to relatively large animals, like reptiles and mammals. The vast majority of animals, including insects and arachnids, experience temperature variation at extremely small scales--often on a centimeter-by-centimeter basis. My recent work with Enchenopa binotata treehoppers shows that although temperatures are incredibly variable on small individual plants (ranging up to 18°C!), treehoppers have limited ability to navigate this temperature variation. While treehoppers are able to avoid the most stressful hot temperatures found on plants, thermoregulation is not precise enough to maintain mating activity. In fluctuating and changing thermal environments, thermoregulation at small scales may be insufficient to prevent breakdowns in reproduction, with limited benefits for population persistence.
Related Publications: Leith et al. In Press, Functional Ecology; Leith et al. 2020, Ethology; Jocson et al. 2019, Journal of Evolutionary Biology; Macchiano et al. 2019, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
|
How multiple environmental factors affect sexual selectionIn natural environments, multiple environmental factors can interact to affect the expression of sexual traits, along with their fitness costs and benefits. However, research so far is limited to how sexual selection responds only to individual axes of environmental variation. Using Schizocosa ocreata wolf spiders, I investigate how temperature and water availability shape the dynamics of sexual selection across ecological scales: (1) how individual males and females interact; (2) how females interact with multiple competing males; and (3) how mating systems arise in populations.
Male Schizocosa ocreata employ a variety of sexually selected traits to attract and compete for mates. During their complex courtship displays, they coordinate vibrational songs with visual dances that highlight their ornamented forelimbs. I study how temperature and aridity affect the expression of individual display components, the co-expression of all display components, and how variation in these complex displays affects mating success.
|
Related Publications: Leith et al., In Prep
Co-adaptation between thermal ecology & sexual traitsA surge of recent work has uncovered the diversity of ways in which temperature affects mating interactions and sexual selection. However, researchers have yet to consider how thermal biology and reproductive ecology evolve together as organisms adapt to their environment. My research considers this possible co-adaptation of thermal ecology and sexual traits.
|
Related Publications: Leith et al., 2022, Ecology Letters
|