Associate Professor Lisa Schwanz
B.A. (Honors), 2000, University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., 2006, University of New Mexico
I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in how animals respond to change in their environment. I work in the field and the lab with a variety of organisms and questions. I also develop novel evolutionary and ecological theory.
Keywords: evolution, ecology, animal, reptile, mammal, plasticity, adaptation, parental effects, reproduction, temperature, climate, stress, theory
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
ARC Discovery Project (DP170101147): Sex determination in dragons -- genetics, epigenetics and environment. Prof Arthur Georges, A/Prof Janine Deakin, Prof Stephen Sarre, Prof Tariq Ezaz, Dr Paul Waters, Dr Lisa Schwanz, Prof Jennifer Graves, Dr Clare Holleley
My research asks: How do animals respond to change? In more scientific terms, research in my lab focuses on the evolution and ecology of phenotypic plasticity - when traits change as a function of the environment. When is plasticity adaptive, how does it evolve in different environments, and does it allow populations to track or adapt to changing conditions? I employ theoretical and empirical approaches to explore these questions, and mostly focus on vertebrate study organisms. My main research foci are temperature-dependent sex determination, parental effects, thermal biology, and sex allocation in mammals.
Topics of interest include:
- Evolution and adaptation of plasticity
- Effects of incubation temperature on reptile sex determination and hatchling phenotypes
- The evolution of sex-determining mechanisms
- Reproductive ecology
- Parental care
- Parental effects
- Investment in sons vs. daughters in mammals
- Physiological correlates of life-history trade-offs
- Thermal Ecology
- Alterations in behaviour and reproduction under parasitic infection
- Ecoimmunology and endocrinology
My Research Supervision
Claudia Crowther (PhD 2019 - )
Phil Pearson (U Canberra PhD 2018 - )
Rebecca Raynal (PhD 2018 - )
Kris Wild (U Canberra PhD 2018 - 2022)
Mitchell Hodgson (PhD 2017- 2021)
My Teaching
BIOS 4517 - Honours, Co-Convener
BIOS 3161 - Life in Arid Lands, Convener
BIOS 3011 - Animal Behaviour