University of Tasmania, Australia

Description

Tasmania an interesting place to study evolutionary biology. It is ecologically diverse by Australian standards, and its history is relatively well-known. The fauna includes cool temperate elements with strong Gondwanan affinities, and includes ancient or relictual groups, in a landscape that retains large tracts of undisturbed land.

BEER is Dr Erik Wapstra's active Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology Research group. Their research focuses on four main topics. Honours and postgraduate projects are available in each of these:

• Climate variability and climate change and their impacts on vertebrate populations: 
• Maternal effects on offspring characters
• Maintenance of individual variation in behaviour 
• Evolution of social behaviour in reptiles

The School is a partner in the Molecular Biology Laboratory where DNA technology can be applied to addressing a range of evolutionary problems.

More information on Behavioural & Evolutionary Ecology Research Projects

Projects

• Are male Egerina whitii lizards resource limited?

• Aspects of the ecology of black-headed honeyeater

• Bat Ecology

• Browsing preferences of marsupials tp Eucalypts

• Characteristics, Occurrence & Management of Habitat for Large Hollow Nesters, particularly the threatened Masked Owl

• Context-dependent sex allocation in the spotted snow skink (Niveoscincus ocellatus)

• Edge and riparian effects on forest litter beetles

• Effects of anthropogenic food sources on the body condition, blood chemistry and stable-isotopes in Tasmanian Silver gulls

• Factors affecting biodiversity of invertebrate species in cave ecosystems

• How and why do female lizards adjust the sex of their offspring through behavioural decisions?

• Impact of forestry on amphibian life history

• Leaf litter invertebrates of riparian vegetation

• Maternal effects, developmental plasticity and climate change: What are the links in southern skinks?

• Nutritional and other physiological constraints on reproduction in the swift parrot, Lathanus discolor

• Predicting the occurrence and habitat of burrowing crayfish Engaeus granulatus

• Reproductive biology of the Forest Raven

• Systematics and habitat preferences of hydrobiid snails (Hydrobiidae, Beddomeia complex) in Tasmania

• The effect of wind on the structure and palatability of eucalypts

• The effects of fire on the avifauna of buttongrass moorlands in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

• The use of eucalypt plantations and surrounding habitat by three marsupial species in Tasmania

• What are the mechanisms underlying dispersal in Egernia whitii lizards?

• Why do female Egernia lizards mate multiply?

• Evolution and dispersal in glaciated landscapes: the phylogeography of the spotted snow skink (Niveoscincus ocellatus) in Tasmania.