Maria Thaker, enseignante chercheuse au National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India.

• Stress, Sex and Danger: shifting phenotypes in a challenging world

Fitness depends entirely on how well individuals can survive and reproduce – both of which can be stressful. What makes these even more challenging is that the traits that increase reproductive success can often decrease survivorship.

I will draw on our work with colourful lizards in India to explore how morphological (colouration), behavioural, and hormonal responses integrate to build successful phenotypic trait complexes. Given that the effectiveness of traits depends on the context, I will also explore how traits shift with changes in selection pressures that are induced by anthropogenic alterations to the environments. Overall, I hope to illustrate the remarkable variation within and between individuals and the critical role that stress plays in facilitating fitness outcomes.

Stress, Sex and Danger: shifting phenotypes in a challenging world.