Understanding the links between animal sexual traits and environmental change

Humans have brought unprecedented changes to environments worldwide. A major priority for conservation is to understand how organisms will respond to environmental change, both in terms of the vulnerability of species to extinction and how populations may evolve when faced with novel pressures.

Species' traits have long been at the forefront of efforts to understand population responses to environmental change, with existing research focusing on the importance of biogeographic and ecological factors, such as range size and habitat breadth. However, a key question is understanding the interactions between environmental change and species' sexual characteristics. There are strong expectations that traits related to mate choice, sexual signalling, and reproduction may affect species' vulnerability to extinction and/or evolutionary responses to novel environmental conditions.

The aim of this PhD is to understand the relationships between animal sexual traits and environmental change, and to shed light on the factors influencing extinction risk and the contemporary evolution of species' sexual traits.