An evolutionary approach to understanding the ultimate effects of chemical pollutants for aquatic animals

Many environmental contaminants are not overtly lethal and instead cause behavioural changes that can affect animal fitness.

Such contaminants have the potential to impose novel selective pressures on animal populations exposed to pollution in the wild; yet, we have no understanding of how novel contaminants can shape the evolutionary trajectories of exposed animals.

This is because the effects of contaminants are rarely evaluated over long, evolutionarily relevant timescales in a way that social behaviours and reproduction can be critically assessed (i.e., the key building blocks needed to shift selective regimes and evolutionary trajectories).

I will test the overarching predictions that chronic exposure to a common contaminant alters social behaviour and generates variation in reproductive success within and across generations, ultimately leading to character shifts in social and life history traits.

I will use a combination of lab- and field-based experiments with East African Lamprologine cichlids, a highly tractable model system for studying complex social behaviours to test my hypotheses.

My work will use novel techniques including high-throughput behavioural scoring using neural networks and newly developed slow-release implants for controlled field exposures.

This research directly answers recent calls in the field for an evolutionary perspective in ecotoxicology, presenting an exciting opportunity to bridge a gap between evolutionary ecology and ecotoxicology.