ProfessorFrank Seebacher

Project Opportunities

Title: How can animals cope with climatic variability?

Summary of opportunity:

Research to discover how the environment affects animal function, and if and how animals can compensate for environmental variability.

Opportunity synopsis:

Climate has always been variable and in the evolution of animals this variability has played a major part in determining biological function and distribution of species.  Animals can respond to variability at a number of levels, ranging from changes in behaviour, physiology, and gene expression of individuals to evolutionary adaptation of species and populations within species.  Failure to compensate for environmental variability will result in loss of fitness and ultimately extinction.  Hence, it is essential to understand the biological processes that enable animals to respond to changes in their environment.  The most important questions in the field are at what level of organisation do animals respond to changing environmental conditions – if at all? How important is variability within individuals (phenotypic plasticity) relative to genetic adaptation of populations and species? What is the interaction between genotype and phenotype? There is a lot of scope for research in this field and individual postgraduate projects will depend on the interests of the student.  Hence, projects can incorporate various amounts of field and laboratory work, concentrate on different aspects of animal function such as gene expression, physiology, behaviour, or ecological interactions.