Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Guppy Project

Today’s post is a quick plug for a great website, The Guppy Project: Experimental studies of the interaction between ecology and evolution in a natural ecosystem.  David Reznick writes:

Our website summarizes our ongoing experimental studies of guppies, evolution and eco-evo dynamics in Trinidad, W.I.  Our project was initially funded by the Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research program (NSF).  We are integrating ecosystems ecology, population/evolutionary biology and adaptive dynamics theory.  The core project is the experimental study of evolution in natural populations of guppies, with supplementary experiments done in artificial streams and in the laboratory.  The website includes a general description of the project, progress reports, PDFs of publications, and an extensive video library.  The library consists of videos made on-site in the tropical rainforest of Trinidad.  Most videos are two to five minutes long and provide a description of the habitat, natural history and methods of study.  There is a series of longer videos that presents an overview of the project, plus a video of a seminar presented by D. Reznick on October 19, 2011 that presents a similar overview and progress.  The videos are intended for secondary schools, undergraduates or a general public that wants to know how scientists study evolution in natural populations.

I would add that there are also links to beautiful photographs taken by project members, and a great summary of the scientific motivations behind the project.  Enjoy!


Photo by Paul Bentzen

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