The role of sexual selection in facilitating rapid adaptation to climate change

Climate change is arguably the most significant threat to biodiversity in the 21st century. Animal populations are experiencing a period of unprecedented environmental change, leading to higher extinction rates. Understanding what affects the capacity of populations to respond and adapt to climate change is now one of the most important issues in ecology and evolutionary biology.

Recent studies have shown that strong sexual selection can increase population resilience and reduce the risk of extinction. Sexual selection may therefore improve a population's ability to cope with climate change. Yet, changes in temperature may also alter the strength or direction of sexual selection, leading to complex interactions and feedback loops between climate change and sexual selection.

To address this gap in our knowledge, this PhD project will investigate how climate change can influence sexual selection and how sexual selection can in turn influence a population's capacity to adapt to a warming world. For example, do changes in temperature lead to changes in male-male competition or female mate choice? What are the consequences of such behavioural changes for offspring fitness? How does temperature affect sperm competition?

This PhD project will use the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides as a model system. Burying beetles are easy to keep in the laboratory and are highly amenable to experimental manipulation. They also have a short generation time and a suite of fascinating reproductive behaviours. This species breeds on carcasses of small vertebrates, and there is fierce intrasexual competition to secure a carcass for breeding. Females can store sperm and may mate with multiple males, so there is scope for sperm competition. Burying beetles also exhibit elaborate biparental care, which includes feeding and defending the offspring.