Award Abstract #0700953
International Research Fellowship Program: Evolution of Geographic Patterns of Dimorphism: Maintenance & Loss of Elaborate Female Coloration

NSF Org:	OISE Office of International Science and Engineering
Initial Amendment Date:	August 21, 2007
Latest Amendment Date:	January 3, 2008
Award Number:	0700953
Award Instrument:	Fellowship
Program Manager:	Susan Parris OISE Office of International Science and Engineering O/D OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
Start Date:	September 1, 2007
Expires:	August 31, 2009 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$195152
Investigator(s):	Troy Murphy tgm3@cornell.edu (Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	Murphy Troy G Baltimore, MD 21250 / -
NSF Program(s):	EAPSI, IRFP
Field Application(s):	0000099 Other Applications NEC, 0116000 Human Subjects
Program Reference Code(s):	OTHR, 5977, 5956, 5922, 0000
Program Element Code(s):	7316, 5956

ABSTRACT

0700953

Murphy

The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.

This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Troy G. Murphy to work with Dr. Robert Montgomerie at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, and with Dr. Roxana Torres at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico. Partial support for this project is provided by the Office of International Science and Engineering's Americas Program.

The evolution of sexual dimorphism has been a longstanding focus of animal behavior research. Most of this research has focused on evolutionary changes in male characters; however, changes in female characters can also lead to sexual dichromatism. In the New World Orioles (Icterus) and many other groups of birds, sexual dichromatism has arisen due to the evolutionary loss of elaborate female coloration. The Streak-backed Oriole (Icterus pustulatus) is ideally suited to studying the evolutionary maintenance and loss of female plumage characters. The subspecies in northern Mexico is sexually dichromatic and females do not participate in territorial defense, whereas the subspecies in southern Mexico is monochromatic elaborate (brightly colored

males and females) and both sexes defend a year-round territory. They hypothesize that differences in territorial behavior between the two subspecies have selected for different strategies in status signaling among females, and that this difference is a driving force behind changes in female coloration. Two forms of selection can contribute to the evolutionary maintenance of elaborate plumage in both sexes. Mutual sexual selection can maintain mate-choice or status signals that function during competition for mates. Social selection can maintain status signals that function during competition for non-sexual resources such as access to food or territories. They will test the adaptive significance of elaborate female coloration in two subspecies of the Streak-backed Oriole. By studying both subspecies, the investigation will combine the power of population-based studies with a broader phylogenetically controlled comparison. This study is unique in that they will study the causes underlying the loss of elaborate female character states in addition to their maintenance.

By working with Dr. Montgomerie in Canada, the PI will be advised by one of the few

scientists who is currently thinking about and testing the function of elaborate male and female coloration. The field-research component of this project is particularly well suited for Mexico because the local populations of orioles represent an ideal system with which to address these questions. By working in collaboration with Dr. Roxana Torres at UNAM in Mexico, he will work with one of the best scientists in Latin America studying color signaling.

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.