Evolution & Ecology

Anya Brown, a National Geographic Explorer and assistant professor of evolution and ecology, will be featured in the upcoming film Expedition: Saving Our Seas, premiering Friday, November 13, at 9 p.m. EST on National Geographic and streaming November 14 on Disney+ and Hulu. The film spotlights the work Brown has done with Rachael Bay, an associate professor of evolution and ecology, and Teina Rongo, their collaborator at the Cook Islands-based nonprofit Kōrero O Te ‘Ōrau.

When they’re first born, baby Amazon mollies aren’t super social, but after about three weeks, something switches and they become socially attuned to their schoolmates. A new study led by researchers from the University of California, Davis, shows that groups of fish develop idiosyncratic group dynamics, even when the groups are genetically identical.

A male fruit fly aspiring to mate faces steep odds. First, he must spend up to 20 minutes maniacally buzzing and dancing. Even then, his success or failure hinges on a single split-second maneuver, when he vaults onto the female, parts her wings, and connects his abdomen to hers. If the gymnastics go awry, the female delivers a powerful mule-kick — sending him tumbling away. 

For Peter Wainwright, the academic path was simple: he simply followed his fascination with fish.

"I dare say there wasn't a lot of deep thought about what direction I should go in my life," he said. "It was more, I like fish, let's see if I can do something with fish. It was all very organic."

As the planet warms, how will plants respond? For a clue, evolutionary ecologists like Sharon Strauss can move a plant outside of its comfort zone.

Strauss, a distinguished professor emerita of evolution and ecology, has conducted numerous experiments growing plants under conditions where they aren’t usually found, with the aim of studying how they’ll respond.

To avoid self-pollination, avocado trees alternate between opening male and female flowers at different times of day. Some avocados are female in the morning and male in the afternoon, while others are on the opposite schedule. How avocados do this has been unclear — until now.

The mountain jewelflower inhabits a wide swath of California and Oregon, from summer-scorched foothills to high mountains where snow falls during winter. But it is already suffering from climate change, with plants in the mountains struggling to survive both summers and winters, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

As wildflowers go, the mountain jewelflower is demure, clever and quietly unbreakable. It has spread across many of California’s iconic landscapes, from Sonoma wine country to the oak-dotted foothills, even over the Sierra Crest, where snow covers the ground during winter.

A kestrel swoops to grab a smaller bird on the wing and eats it, right in front of a group of men in the garden at California Health Care Facility, or CHCF, a prison in Stockton, where the garden has become both a thriving ecosystem and a science classroom for people incarcerated there. As the feathers fly, UC Davis researcher Laci Gerhart pulls out a bird guide and shows the incarcerated men how to identify the bird by its size and coloration, noting that kestrels are North America’s smallest raptor and one of the few that are sexually dimorphic. 

Experiences in the first days and weeks of life can have a profound impact on humans — and birds. A new study led by Sage Madden, a graduate student working with Gail Patricelli, a professor of evolution and ecology, shows how weather conditions and family dynamics affect the growth of barn swallow (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) chicks.