Jessica L. Ward
I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in behavioural evolution and communication, with an emphasis on the behavioural mechanisms driving and/or constraining the production of new biodiversity. My dissertation work at the University of Toronto under Dr. Deborah McLennan investigated the evolution of reproductive behaviour in freshwater fish, focusing specifically on the evolution of visual communication between the sexes during courtship and investigating how, and to what extent, changes in courtship signals can impact speciation processes. My postdoctoral research at Tulane University in the lab of Dr. Michael Blum is concerned with understanding how changes in signaling and assessment mechanisms that can be attributed to anthropogenic disturbance (e.g. due to chemical contamination of aquatic systems) contribute to the breakdown of reproductive isolation between native and invasive species.
Research Keywords: Selection, Behaviour, Communication, Speciation, Reproductive isolation, Signal evolution, Sensory ecology, Biological invasion, Hybridization
Jessica Ward
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Contact Information:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA, 70118
Phone: 504-941-0899
News
Sept 2009. Starting a postdoc at Tulane University - Hey, what’s up New Orleans?
June 2009. New paper “Female mate choice based on complex visual cues” accepted at Behav. Ecol.
Feb 2009. Awarded an NSF/ABS travel grant to attend the ABS meeting in Brazil. See you in June.
Sept 2008. New paper “Historical and ecological correlates of body shape in the brook stickleback” accepted at Biol. J. Linn. Soc.
Aug 2008. Awarded a travel grant to attend the ISBE conference in in Ithaca this August. See you at Cornell, everybody.
