PhD Project on:
Variation in offspring care and social organization in mammals
https://bit.ly/32CPBRG
I am currently seeking a highly motivated and top-ranking student for a competitive PhD scholarship opportunity at the University of Strasbourg, France to work on the topic of the evolution of care systems in mammals using phylogenetic controlled comparative analyses (see detailed description below).
The competitive exam will take place in early July 2021. I will help the student in preparing this exam. This exam consists of a 10-15 minute oral interview of the candidates MSc thesis and planned PhD proposal in front of a panel of 20 professors in various fields of biology (spanning molecular biology, genetics, plant and animal physiology, ecology and evolution) followed by a 15 minute question session.
The successful candidate will be awarded a 3-year PhD fellowship to work at the Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien http://www.iphc.cnrs.fr/-Ethologie-et-Physiologie-Evolutive-EPE-.html together with C Schradin http://www.iphc.cnrs.fr/-Carsten-Schradin-.html on the PhD topic described below. Working language in the research group is English.
Pre-requisites asked for by the doctoral school in Strasbourg:
- Have completed a MSc degree in biology.
- Be within the top 25% of her/his Master program. It is therefore essential that the diploma from non-French universities has a statement about the ranking of students (for example: “Within the best 10%”). For French candidates, the score has to be at least 14/20 to be considered by the ecole doctorale
Pre-requisites asked for by the supervisor
- Good knowledge and motivation for R programming
- Strong background in behavioural ecology and / or evolutionary biology
- Good English skills (read, spoken, written)
- Ability to work hard and independently
Project:
Mammals are the only animal class where parental care occurs in every species. Yet, there is large variation between species, from maternal care only to biparental care to alloparental care by breeders (communal breeding) and non-breeders (cooperative breeding). This variation has been explored in important comparative studies to understand the evolution of care systems. However, these studies ignored one important topic: Intra-specific variation in care systems.
Formerly it was believed that each species has one specific form of social systems. However, it is now widely known that intra-specific variation occurs, for example in social organization (IVSO) but also in the care system (IVCARE). Whether a species is scored as obligate or occasional cooperative breeders might influence the statistical results and thus our understanding of social evolution. In this PhD project we want to investigate which environmental factors and which factors of the life history are associated with the occurrence of IVCARE and IVSO.
In collaboration with Dr. L. Hayes (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA), we are building up a dataset on mammalian social systems, identifying in which species intra-specific variation occurs. We only consider information from primary literature, which often differs dramatically from what is reported in secondary literature. We will include information on the environment and on different life history parameters into the dataset. The statistical supervisor for this project will be Dr. A. Jaeggi (University of Zurich, Switzerland), an expert in phylogenetically controlled analyses of large datasets.
We will test which environmental factors and which life history parameters are associated with the occurrence of IVCARE and how it is related to IVSO. For example, we predict that the degree by which biparental care is shown (% of social units in which males show parental care) increases with population density and breeding seasonality. We further predict that obligate cooperative breeding is more common in species that occur in habitats characterized by high inter-annual year variation in rainfall and food abundance. Finally, we will use the database to approach questions regarding how IVCARE and IVSO are related to each other. One focus will be to identify which factors lead to stable social systems, and whether such specialised species show less resilience to global change and might thus need more conservation effort.
The database for IVSO already exists. The PhD student will have to build up a database on IVCARE. The PhD student will then include available information on environmental and life history data, develop and run statistical models to test for the specific hypotheses, and write publications.
Strasbourg is one of Europe’s most attractive cities, being 1h45 by train from Paris, 1h by plane from Amsterdam and Scandinavia, and at the border with Germany. It has a rich historical and architectural heritage, with Strasbourg's historical city centre being listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Its diversity, pedestrian city centre and 500 km of cycling paths make it a very pleasant city to explore. Vibrant and affordable, Strasbourg is a true student city providing a great learning and living environment (Check out the New York Time's video: 36 Hours in Strasbourg).