Jessica Ward
Summary
I am broadly interested in the proximate and ultimate factors that control variation in animal behavior. Research in my lab is conducted through two non-mutually exclusive lines of inquiry. First, I am interested in understanding how organisms perceive and respond to one another and the environment. This line of research focuses on understanding the mechanisms, function and evolution of communication systems. I ask questions related to how animals have evolved to perceive, process, and respond to stimuli in the contexts of mate choice, aggression, and predator-prey dynamics, as well as understanding how behavior develops in response to abiotic environmental cues. Second, I am interested in understanding what drives the behavioral responses of organisms to a changing world. This research aims to clarify how different forms of human activity (endocrine disrupting chemicals, land-use changes, invasive introductions) modify the behavior of individual organisms, and estimate the associated ecological and evolutionary implications of these changes, including population and community structure, hybridization and the production or collapse of species, and altered selection trajectories on organismal traits.
Animal Behavior Biodiversity Ecology Evolutionary Studies Zoology