Current and completed projects

Projects

• Salmon of Steel
• Sheffield Otter Study
• Sheffield Peregrines
• Fitness consequences of personality in House Sparrows (Passer domesticus)
• Genetic control of avian plumage traits
• Gene mapping in Soay sheep by linkage and linkage disequilibrium analysis
• The selection and evolution of parasite resistance genes in a free-living mammal population
• Egyptian spiny mouse population genetics
• Gene mapping in wild bird populations
• Microevolution in a long term, individual-based study of great tits
• Great tit evolutionary genomics
• UK Popnet
• Genetic analysis of the Australian Brush-turkey
• Sexual selection and fitness in the co-operatively breeding Seychelles warbler
• Direct and indirect fitness effects of parental care in house sparrows
• The Lundy Island house sparrow project
• Plumage patterns of the Gouldian finch
• A phylogeny of African plovers
• Genetic variation and the response of plant communities to climate change
• Genetics of sterility in a grasshopper (Chorthippus parallelus) hybrid zone
• Genetics of speciation in grasshoppers
• Selection for adapation and the genetics of differentiation in Littorina saxatilis
• Adaptation and barriers to gene flow in the marine snail Littorina saxatilis
• Global Bedbug Spread: planes, genes and insecticides
• Sexual selection and the rapid evolution of reproductive genes
• Chemosensory genes and host-associated speciation in
• aphids
• Systematic review for knowledge exchange in conservation genetics
• Genetics of Myotis bats
• Nest mate recognition system in the narrow headed ant Formica exsecta
• Mate choice in the house sparrow, Passer domesticus
• Sexual selection in the house sparrow (Passer domesticus)
• Biodiversity in European chickens
• Mapping of quantitative trait loci for male fertility traits in the chicken
• Analysis of a two-species newt metapopulation using microsatellites
• Genetic testing of GIS-based models of dispersal in Triturus newts
• Habitat-dependent patterns of reproductive success in the common newt (Triturus vulgaris)
• Population genetics of the Eurasian badger (Meles meles)
• Social behaviour in the Eurasian badger (Meles meles)
• Genetic identification of illegal trade in the Cape parrot (Poicephalus robustus) and blue crane (Grus paradisea)
• Reproductive strategies in the common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)
• Sexual selection in the blue tit (Parus caeruleus)
• Ecological and genetic basis of 'gigantism' in an island bird: an empirical test of new marker-based approaches
• Role of microRNAs in phenotypic plasticity to environmental change
• Effects of genetic impoverishment on plant community structure and diversity
• Spatial and sexual segregation of Daubenton's bats in Wharfdale: a behavioural and genetic approach
• Evolutionary genetics of the phenotypic response to environmental change in the North American red squirrel
• The evolutionary genetics of social dominance in mountain goats, Oreamnos americanus
• Worker policing, worker reproduction, and nepotism in honey bees

Collaborative projects

• Kinship and paternity studies in birds
• Investment strategies by parents and helpers in the cooperatively breeding long-tailed tit.
• The effect of ecology, demography and migration on the prevalence of cooperative breeding in the long-tailed tit.
• Alternative routes to cooperative breeding in the Rifleman, Acanthisitta chloris.
• The evolution of cooperative behaviour in the sociable weaver (Philetairus socius)
• Molecular genetics of alternative male reproductive morphs in Ruffs (Philomachus pugnax)

The group's work is supported by grants from: UK Natural Environment Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, European Commission, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Scottish Natural Heritage, the Marie Curie Programme (EU), the White Rose Fund, Yorkshire Water, UK and Research England.