Professor Robert Knell - Love in the Time of Climate Change: How Mating Systems can Control Evolution

Why is it important how animals find mates? Animal species display a staggering variety of ways to do this: some such as corals don't bother and just broadcast their eggs or sperm into the environment and hope that they encounter a suitable gamete of the opposite sex; male and female albatrosses partner up and form life-long bonds; male birds of paradise compete for the attention of females via elaborate plumage and displays; aggressive stags fight with each other to gain access to females; and in some species such as pipefish and seahorses "normal" sex roles are reversed and brightly coloured females display to choosy males.

Fascinating as these may be as natural history observations, we have recently come to realise that these various mating systems can have important effects on evolutionary outcomes. Because the mating system determines the way that genes flow between generations, different mating systems can enhance or degrade the ability of animal populations to adapt to changing environments - and all animal populations nowadays are facing changing environments.

Professor Knell will guide you through the complicated story of how these mating systems alter persistence and make the case that understanding mating systems is now a vital component of conservation planning.

About Professor Robert Knell

Professor Robert Knell is a Professor of Zoology and an active researcher with interests in a variety of different aspects of ecology and evolution, mainly to do with either parasites, immune systems, sex - or all three.