I am looking for someone to assist in my research (see description below) in South Florida beginning in May or June and extending to early August. Time conflicts may be accommodated. Data will be collected at approximately 20 sites in Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and other areas. The assistant will be involved in all aspects of data collection including species surveys, water chemistry analysis, observations of focal males, and egg care manipulations. Credit may be earned through zoology course 4905. Housing may be provided; however, money is not currently available for a stipend.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:  A better understanding of phenotypic variation and its correlates across space can offer insights into the mechanisms through which populations are maintained in wetlands. Florida wetland habitats are part of a continuum of environmental variation along gradual gradients. Species that persist within this system are exposed to and must withstand significant spatial and temporal environmental variation. I am interested in the variation in behavioral traits that contribute to the maintenance of populations across such variation in habitat. A better understanding of behavioral variation across systems such as the Everglades may allow us to determine what types of habitat are optimal for a species. This, in turn, may lead to predictions of population-level responses to changes in local environmental conditions that occur with redirection of water flow, input of agricultural runoff, or changes in species composition.

Many of the environmental conditions that vary along the gradient from freshwater wetland to coastal marine habitats are known to affect parental care, egg development, and egg survival of fish in laboratory studies. Adaptive explanations for parental care suggest parents reduce environmental stress on eggs (e.g., predation, low oxygen flow, etc.) by providing care. If the adaptive explanation is accurate, then a species whose range includes all of the Everglades ecosystem should exhibit geographic variation in the level of parental care given to eggs that corresponds to geographic variation in the environmental stress on eggs during development.  I will test this hypothesis by examining parental care in the Florida flagfish (Jordanella floridae).