We take an integrative approach to understand how the environment—both social and ecological—influences social behavior through empirical studies that combine ecology and evolution with those of underlying molecular, neural and neuroendocrine mechanisms. Our work is grounded in mathematical theory, and we use modeling and comparative approaches to generate and test novel hypotheses. We study a variety of terrestrial vertebrate and invertebrate systems (including birds, reptiles, mammals and insects) on every continent except Antarctica, as well as a number of aquatic organisms (including crustaceans, amphibians and fishes) in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Our research spans molecules to populations, from invertebrates to vertebrates, and across levels of analysis, scales of biological organization and the globe. Ultimately, our goal is to develop a synthetic understanding of how environmental change has influenced the evolution of social living and adaptive coping by taking an integrative approach to study a diversity of organisms living in a range of habitats across the globe.

Research Keywords: Animal behavior, Behavioral ecology, Evolutionary ecology, Physiology, Genomics, Epigenetics