Professor Pat Monaghan - Research Interests

Professor of Animal Ecology

Contact details:
Room 426, Graham Kerr Building
Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine
University of Glasgow
Glasgow
G12 8QQ

Tel.: 0141 330 6640
Fax: 0141 330 5971
E-mail: Pat.Monaghan@glasgow.ac.uk

Life-history strategies and effects of early conditions; long and short term resource allocation trade-offs; mainly birds, with related work on insects and amphibia.

My main research is broadly in behavioural and population ecology with particular emphasis on the responses of individuals to changing environmental conditions and the proximate factors influencing these responses. At present, I am particularly interested in growth, reproductive performance and senescence, and associated life history trade-offs. I have a number of projects examining the long term consequences of conditions in early life. My research group works on wild and captive populations of birds since these offer excellent opportunities for testing a number of theoretical predictions in this area. We also work on other taxonomic groups (amphibians and insects). Recent work has focused resource allocation and developmental trade-offs.

I have long been interested in the early phases of reproduction i.e. egg production and incubation, focusing on how constraints operating in these phases influence optimal clutch size in birds, and in my group we currently have a number of ongoing studies in this area.

The above projects involve collaborations with molecular biologists, endocrinologists and physiologists, and we study mechanisms such as hormonal factors, telomere loss and oxidative stress.

In addition to the above, I am very interested in the application of behavioural ecology to environmental problems. This has involved research on the problems caused by population changes in gulls and on conflicts between conservation and exploitation in marine ecosystems, with particular reference to conflicts with fisheries and with the oil industry. I have also been involved in a project involving rat eradication at a major seabird colony. I am also involved in a long term study of the red-billed Chough, from both fundamental and conservation related perpectives. This involves population biology and life history studies.

I collaborate with a number of colleagues both here in Glasgow and at other institutions in the UK and abroad