Natalie Lewis

I am a PhD candidate interested in behavioural ecology, community dynamics and life history strategies.

My current project explores the effects of artificial selection from captive fisheries on the early life social environment in European grayling, Thymallus thymallus. Specifically, I focus on whether kin recognition is present at different life stages, how individuals recognise kin and how kin recognition related behaviours will impact fitness. The project aims to further disentangle how inbreeding avoidance behaviours based on kin recognition will affect mate choice and reproductive investment.

Throughout my PhD I will broadly focus on MHC social signalling, mainly through olfactory cues, and how mate perception may alter reproductive investment. I aim to explore the effects of learnt odour cues, inbreeding levels and microbial communities on olfactory perception through behavioural studies and by looking at reproductive success.