Honors and Awards
- Young Investigator Prize, American Society of Naturalists, 2009
- Ned K. Johnson Young Investigator Award, American Ornithologists Union, 2009
- NSF IRFP Award, 2006-2008
- American Museum of Natural History Frank M. Chapman Award, 2004
Research Interests
The ultimate goal of my work is to understand the link between micro and macroevolutionary processes with specific focus on ecological feedbacks and evolutionary diversification. To achieve these goals, I integrate approaches from evolutionary and physiological ecology to quantitative genetics and phylogenetic comparative methods.
My current work uses large-scale field experiments, empirical measures of lifetime fitness and molecular multi-generational pedigree reconstruction to investigate the dynamics of trait evolution in the context of range expansion and species coexistence in passerine birds. Range expansion provides a unique opportunity study ongoing ecological and evolutionary processes and thus to characterize feedbacks between evolutionary and ecological dynamics. Current projects in the lab include 1) the evolution of distinct dispersal morphs 2) the mechanisms of species coexistence at range margins 3) the role of adaptive maternal effects in range expansion 4) niche shifts and species diversification and 5) sexually antagonistic selection and constraints to adaptive evolution.
Selected Publications
- Duckworth, RA. 2009. Maternal effects and range expansion: A key factor in a dynamic process? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364: 1075-1086.
- Duckworth, RA & LEB Kruuk. 2009. Evolution of genetic integration between dispersal and colonization ability in a bird. Evolution: 63-4: 968-977.
- Duckworth, RA. 2009. The role of behavior in evolution: a search for mechanism. Evolutionary Ecology: 23: 513-531.
- Duckworth, RA. 2008. Adaptive dispersal strategies and the dynamics of a range expansion. American Naturalist 172: 4-17.
- Duckworth, RA, & AV Badyaev. 2007. Coupling of dispersal and aggression facilitates the rapid range expansion of a passerine bird. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,
USA 104: 15017-15022.
- Duckworth, RA. 2006. Aggressive behavior affects selection on morphology by determining the environment of breeding in a passerine bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
B273: 1789-1795.
- Duckworth, RA. 2006. Behavioral correlations across breeding contexts provide a mechanism
for a cost of aggression. Behavioral Ecology17: 1011-1019.
- Badyaev, AV & RA Duckworth. 2003. Context-dependent sexual advertisement: plasticity in
development of sexual ornamentation throughout the lifetime of a passerine bird. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 16: 1065-1076.
- Duckworth, RA, AV Badyaev, & AF Parlow. 2003. Elaborately ornamented males avoid costly parental care in the house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus): a proximate perspective. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 55: 176-183.
- Duckworth, RA, MT Mendonça, & GE Hill. 2001. A condition dependent link between
testosterone and disease resistance. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268: 2467‑2472.
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