Dr Amy Schwartz

Contact details:
Room 321B, Graham Kerr Building
Division of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Glasgow
Glasgow
G12 8QQ

Tel.: 0141 330 4769
Fax: 0141 330 5971
E-mail: a.schwartz@bio.gla.ac.uk

Academic History

2010   FQRNT Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Glasgow

2009   PhD, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
(supervisor, Andrew Hendry: http://biology.mcgill.ca/faculty/hendry/)                    

2005    MSc, McGill University, Montreal, Canada 

Research Interests

I'm generally interested in understanding the feedback between ecological and evolutionary processes that determine the limits to biological diversity. In particular, I focus on the interplay between natural and sexual selection and how this can facilitate or impede adaptation to new environmental conditions.

Sexual selection and population persistence
It is well known that natural selection is the main driver of adaptation to local environmental conditions, thereby allowing persistence. Sexual selection also influences the fitness of individuals by affecting their reproductive success, and changing phenotypes, yet its consequences for the adaptation of populations is relatively unknown and understudied. In collaboration with Jan Lindström and Neil Metcalfe, I am currently studying the environmental and genetic influences on the evolution of mating signals in the three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and its consequences for offspring fitness and adaptive potential in changing environments.

Natural selection, sexual selection and speciation
Although many species are defined by reproductive incompatibility and differences in primary or secondary sexual characteristics, the role of sexual selection during population divergence and its consequences for adaptive speciation are still largely unexplored. When populations adapt to different environmental conditions, sexual selection may prevent divergence if females prefer migrant traits, even if these are maladapted to the new environment. On the other hand, the evolution of preferences toward locally adapted males and/or male phenotypes would promote diversification. I am exploring this framework using Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) who inhabit, and show divergent adaptation to, environments that differ in predation risk.

Publications

Schwartz, A.K and Hendry A.P. 2010. The influence of local forest canopy clearing on guppy size and male colour. In press, Functional Ecology

Crispo, E., DiBattista, J.D., Correa, C., Thibert-Plante, X., McKellar, A.E., Schwartz, A.K., Berner,D., De Leon, L., and Hendry, A.P. 2010. The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in response to anthropogenic disturbance.  Evolutionary Ecology Research, 12: 47-66

Karim N, Gordon SP, Schwartz AK and Hendry AP. 2007. This is not déjà vu all over again: male guppy colour in a new experimental introduction. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 20: 1339-1350.

Schwartz, A.K. and Hendry AP. 2007. A test for the parallel co-evolution of male colour and female preference in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Evolutionary Ecology Research, 9: 71-90.

Schwartz, A.K, and Hendry, A.P. 2006. Sexual selection and the detection of ecological speciation. Evolutionary Ecology Research , 8: 1-15.