Michael was awarded his PhD today and both Bob and Minna got to dress up to attend the ceremony and academic procession.
SETAC Helsinki meeting
The Wong lab was well represented at the SETAC Europe meeting in Helsinki this year, with Bob, Minna, Jake and Michael all presenting talks/posters. Minna also co-organised a session at the conference titled ‘Examining Behavioural Effects of Chemical Contaminants and Other Stressors on Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Wildlife.’
Bob at University of Melbourne
Bob spent a lovely day today catching up with staff and students in the Department of Biosciences, where he also delivered a seminar on the lab’s pharmaceutical work.
Congratulations, Jake and Michael!
Congratulations to Jake Martin for receiving a Toxics Travel Award, and to Michael Bertram for winning a Company of Biologists Travel Grant from the Society for Experimental Biology!!
Lab retreat in Dromana
The lab spent a couple of days bonding over food and board games in Dromana.
Congratulations, Michael!
A big congrats to Michael Bertram for being awarded the SETAC Australasia Postgrad Research Publication Award for 2019!!
Welcome Dr Giovani Polverino
UWA Forrest Fellow Dr Giovanni Polverino spent a couple of weeks visiting the lab to conduct a collaborative research project on the effects of pharmaceutical pollutants on behavioural variation in guppies. Here Gio (right) takes a break to enjoy some Japanese.
Congratulations, Minna!
A huge congratulations to Minna Saaristo for winning the SETAC Australasia Early Career Medal for 2019!!
Congratulations Michael and Anna!
A big congratulations to Michael Bertram and Anna Hatzisavas (our fantastic website manager) on their beautiful wedding today.
ISBE2020 logo launch
Today marked the launch of the logo for the 18th International Society for Behavioral Ecology Congress. The design features a yellow-tailed black cockatoo set against a background of Eucalyptus leaves and blossoms. Bob is the Chair of the Organising Committee of the 2020 ISBE Congress.
Seminar at Arthur Rylah Institute
Bob presented a seminar today at the Victorian State Government’s Arthur Rylah Institute speaking about the ecological and evolutionary implications of wildlife behavioural responses to changing environments.
Lab dinner
We recently enjoyed a celebratory dinner with Prof. Bryan Brooks (Baylor University) and PhD student Cameron Jones (UC Davis), who have been in Australia visiting our research group over the last few months. Yum!
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Maddy de Jong who received a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment! She will be using the grant to fund her research into the effects of incubation temperature on behaviour, thermal physiology and sex ratios in lizards.
New PhD student
Welcome to Jack Brand who begins his PhD project co-supervised with David Chapple investigating behavioural variation and cognition in invasive species.
Visit to Perth
Bob recently visited the University of Western Australia (UWA) to deliver talks and an ECR workshop as part of a visiting fellowship funded by the Institute for Advanced Studies and the Forrest Foundation. A big thanks to Dr. Giovanni Polverino and Prof. Leigh Simmons from the Centre for Evolutionary Biology and the School of Biological Sciences at UWA for hosting.
Lord Howe Island fieldwork
We’ve recently had lab members in the field. PhD candidates Cameron Jones, visiting on an NSF grant from the Sih lab at UC Davis, and Annie Naimo collected invasive L. delicata on Lord Howe Island and from their mainland Australian source population, Coffs Harbour. This work will address behavioural changes across the invasion process and was funded by a Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council.
Congratulations, Michael!
A big congratulations to Michael Bertram on having his PhD conferred! Well done!
Antidepressant alters fish behaviour
Hundreds of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals have now been detected in aquatic ecosystems and wildlife tissues around the world.
One widespread pharmaceutical pollutant of growing environmental concern is the antidepressant fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac), which can affect behavioural and physiological processes in animals. Despite this, effects of fluoxetine on wildlife behaviour have seldom been investigated across multiple fitness-related contexts, especially at environmentally realistic concentrations.
New research, led by PhD candidate Jake Martin, has uncovered that exposure to fluoxetine at environmentally realistic concentrations alters reproductive behaviour in male fish. Specifically, exposed male eastern mosquitofish spent a greater amount of time following, and were more likely to copulate with, female fish. What is more, no significant effect of exposure was seen when male fish were tested for activity and exploratory behaviour in a novel environment, indicating that behavioural effects of fluoxetine exposure may be context-specific.
In combination, these results underscore how pharmaceutical pollution at field-detected concentrations can induce important shifts in wildlife behaviour, with potential ecological and evolutionary implications for exposed populations.
To find out more about this research, click here.
In the news
Pharmaceutical pollution that enters our waterways due to inadequate wastewater treatment processes is having unforeseen impacts on fish. In a collection of three recent studies, led by PhD candidates Michael Bertram and Jake Martin, and Honours student Jack Fursdon, exposure of fish to the widespread pharmaceutical contaminant fluoxetine (marketed as Prozac) caused changes in behaviour, morphology and sperm production.
To see recent press coverage of this research, click here.
Faculty award for best student paper
Well done to Jake Martin for winning the Faculty of Science Award for Outstanding Author Contribution by a Graduate Research Student to a Published Quality Scholarly Research Output.
