Dr. Beren Robinson
Associate Professor
Email: berenrob@uoguelph.ca
Office: SCIE 2455
Ext: 58968
Lab: SCIE 2403
Ext: 54582
Profile | Education | Research | Publications | Teaching | Grad Students | Links |
Profile
Where does biodiversity come from? What role does ecology play in the origins of different life forms? I ask these questions about 'the life aquatic' (no doubt fed by early Cousteau specials…), in order to understand how new types and species of fish have evolved in lakes that formed after the last glaciation about 12,000 years ago (in other words, most lakes in Canada…). While this seems a long time period, it is actually a mere 'tick' of the evolutionary or geological clock. The diversity of fishes in postglacial lakes is influenced by processes that occurred long ago in glacial refugia, more recently during dispersal across the postglacial 'lakescape', and most recently within the young lakes that I can swim in.
We have explored the role of species interactions (competitors, predators, and parasites), the affect of prey resources, niches and habitats (on the bottom, in the water column, or in vegetation…), and even abiotic conditions (basin topography?) on biodiversity in sunfishes, sticklebacks and walleye. I am very interested in the origins and consequences of diversity within single populations. Trophic polymorphism occurs when different types of individuals appear adapted to use different prey, habitats, or environments within a single population. Such systems are like time travel, giving us insights into the earliest stages of divergence that can lead to divergent populations and perhaps new species. Recently, we have been studying the role of phenotypic plasticity in the divergence of different forms in novel environments. Plasticity is the capacity of a single genotype to produce different phenotypes depending on environmental cues. We have found that the plastic responses to local conditions are one of the very first things to change during divergence. This raises interesting questions about the role of plasticity in evolution that will no doubt occupy us for years to come.
Education
B.Sc. - Dalhousie
M.Sc. - Dalhousie
Ph.D. - Binghamton
Research
Evolutionary ecology of divergent fish forms in postglacial lakes
The fishes of northern postglacial lakes are exhibiting recent and rapid rates of divergence and are becoming a model system in which to address questions about how ecology influences evolution. Our work focuses on studying the roles that ecological factors play in creating patterns of natural selection that can promote divergence both below and above the species threshold. Morphological divergence along an environmental axis formed between the shallow vegetated inshore habitat and the deep open waters of the pelagic zone is repeatedly observed within and among fish populations in postglacial lakes, and appears to be linked to the formation of new species. We use ecological methods (such as manipulative experiments in the field and lab, and comparative surveys of natural populations) to test if species interactions (competition, parasites, and predators), prey-specific foraging tactics, morphology, behaviour, lake conditions and other ecologically related factors can impose natural selection that favours divergence. Divergence below and above the species threshold is studied using resource polymorphisms and closely related species respectively. Resource polymorphisms are single populations that are composed of coexisting divergent forms that use these different environmental niches. We are currently studying a number of polymorphic pumpkinseed sunfish populations at the northern extent of their range in Ontario. We are also studying the role of competition in divergence using related species of sticklebacks in northern Ontario.
Genetic divergence and phenotypic plasticity in the adaptive divergence of fish forms
While natural selection is often viewed as the ultimate cause of adaptive divergence, the responsible proximate mechanisms are genetic divergence among forms or phenotypic plasticity whereby a single genotype develops into alternate phenotypes depending on environmental cues (or even a combination of both mechanisms). In other words, natural selection can favour the evolution of either mechanism depending on local conditions. We are interested in studying the relative roles and the interaction between these two mechanisms in the morphological divergence of postglacial fishes, and in identifying the ecological factors related to the evolution of one over the other in specific cases. We are also interested in addressing under what conditions plasticity may promote versus hinder genetic divergence and possibly speciation. We collect wild progeny of different forms from polymorphic populations and rear them under different diets in the lab (combining common garden and reciprocal transplant techniques) in order to measure the relative contribution of each mechanism. We also study the form of plastic responses to standard diets by different forms in order to test ideas about the evolution of plasticity, and how plasticity may influence genetic divergence.
Ecological and evolutionary consequences of trade offs
I am interested in how a variety of tradeoffs influence the evolution of certain traits and the ecology of species interactions. I use numerical simulations to address how trade-offs that involve foraging influence the evolution of specialization, and affect the coexistence of specialists and generalists in stable communities. I have also studied how the evolution of growth rate may be constrained by tradeoffs with developmental stability.
Selected Publications
Ecology and evolution of divergent fish forms
Riopel, C, BW Robinson, KJ Parsons. 2008. Analyzing nested variation in the body form of Lepomid sunfishes. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 82: 409-420.
Moles, MD, TA Johnston, BW Robinson, WC Leggett, JM Casselman. 2008. Is gonadal investment in walleye (Sander vitreus) dependent on body lipid reserves? A multipopulation comparative analysis. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 65: 600-614.
Peiman, KS and BW Robinson. 2007. Heterospecific aggression and adaptive divergence in brook stickleback (Culea inconstans). Evolution, 61: 1327-1338.
Gray, S. M., B. W. Robinson, and K. J. Parsons. 2005. Testing alternative explanations of character shifts against ecological character displacement in brook sticklebacks (Culaea inconstans) that coexist with ninespine sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius). Oecologia 146: 25-35.
Jastrebski, C. J., and B. W. Robinson. 2004. Natural selection and the evolution of replicated trophic polymorphisms in pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). Evolutionary Ecology Research 6: 285-305.
Gray, S. M., and B. W. Robinson. 2002. Experimental evidence that competition between stickleback species favors adaptive character divergence. Ecology Letters 5: 264-272.
Robinson, B.W. 2000. Trade offs in habitat-specific foraging efficiency and the nascent adaptive divergence of sticklebacks in lakes. Behaviour 137: 865-888.
Robinson, B.W, D.S. Wilson and A.S. Margosian. 2000. A pluralistic analysis of character release in pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). Ecology 81: 2799-2812.
Robinson, B.W., and D. Schluter. 2000. Natural selection and the evolution of adaptive genetic variation in northern freshwater fishes. Pp. 65-94 in, T. A. Mousseau, B. Sinervo, and J. A. Endler (eds.), Adaptive genetic variation in the wild. Oxford Univ. Press, NY.
Phenotypic plasticity and genetic divergence in fish
Robinson, BW, AJ Januszkiewicz and JC Koblitz. 2008. Survival benefits and divergence of predator-induced behavior between pumpkinseed sunfish ecomorphs. Behavioral Ecology 19: 263-271
Januszkiewicz, AJ and BW Robinson. 2007. Divergent walleye (Sander vitreus) –mediated inducible defenses in the centrarchid pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 90: 25-36.
Parsons, KJ and BW Robinson. 2007. Foraging performance of diet-induced morphotypes in pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus) favours resource polymorphism. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 20: 673-684.
Parsons, K. J., and B. W. Robinson. 2006. Replicated evolution of divergent integrated plastic responses during early adaptive divergence. Evolution 60: 801-813.
Robinson, B.W., and K. J. Parsons. 2002. Changing times, spaces and faces: tests and implications of adaptive morphological plasticity in the fishes of northern postglacial lakes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences59: 1819-1833.
Robinson, B.W. and R. Dukas. 1999. The influence of phenotypic modifications on evolution: the Baldwin effect and modern perspectives. Oikos 85: 582-589.
Robinson, B.W. and D.S. Wilson. 1996. Genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity in a polymorphic population of pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). Evolutionary Ecology 10: 631-652.
Ecological and evolutionary consequences of trade offs
O¹Hara Hines, R. J., W. G. S. Hines, and B. W. Robinson. 2004. A new statistical test of the shape of fitness sets estimated from reciprocal transplant experiments involving intermediate or hybrid classes. The American Naturalist 163: 97-104.
Robinson. B.W., and S. Wardrop. 2002. Experimentally manipulated growth rate in threespine sticklebacks: assessing trade offs with developmental stability. Environmental Biology of Fishes 63: 67-78.
Robinson, B.W. 2000. Trade offs in habitat-specific foraging efficiency and the nascent adaptive divergence of sticklebacks in lakes. Behaviour 137: 865-888.
Robinson, B.W., D.S. Wilson and G.O. Shea. 1996. Trade-offs of ecological specialization: An intraspecific comparison of pumpkinseed sunfish phenotypes. Ecology 77: 170-178.
Teaching
BIOL*2250 Biostatistics and the Life Sciences**
BIOL*3010 Laboratory and Field Work in Ecology*
BIOL*3450 Introduction to Aquatic Environments
BIOL*4110 Ecological Methods*
BIOL*4120 Evolutionary Ecology
IBIO*6020 Advances in Evolution
*Co-teaching course with Doug W. Larson
**Co-teaching course with Dr. Julie Horrocks (Math & Stats)
Grad Students
Jessica-Margaret Paige (MSc)
Morgan Edwards (MSc)
Recent grad students:
Scott Colborne (MSc)
Matthew Moles (MSc)
Kathryn Peiman (MSc)
Andrew Januszkiewicz (MSc)
Dylan Weese (MSc)
Links
The Axelrod Institute of Ichthyology
Canada's Aquatic Environments
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution
Searchable Fish Base
Evolutionary Ecology Research
Ecology @ Guelph
Source about Canadian Science