Ned Dochtermann

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Dept. of Biology; University of Nevada, Reno

Research Interests

Behavioral Syndromes / Animal Personality

One component of my research has involved determining behavioral syndrome structure in Dipodomys merriami (Dochtermann and Jenkins, 2007). Behavioral syndromes, the consistent correlation of behaviors, are conceptually analogous to personalities. If the behaivoral covariances associated with personality structure are the result of underlying genetic covariance, then personality structures may constrain the ability of populations to respond to selection. Consistent with this, collaborators and I have demonstrated that personality structure in D. merriami arises due to underlying hormonal variation (Dochtermann et al., in review)

I have also conducted extensive field studies intended to determine the factors that maintain phenotypic (behavioral) variation within wild populations of Dipodomys merriami. We hope to publish this research in late 2009.

Steve Jenkins (link) and I previously used structural equation modeling to describe syndrome structure and I am further developing this approach with Neils Dingemanse (link) and Jon Wright (link)

Population Dynamics

under construction
stuff with Mary and Jim

The Evolution of Personality Structure

Along with lab and field work characterizing personality structure and developing quantitative approaches to describing personality structure, I am also interested in the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for the development of personalities. Taking a different approach than other researchers, I have developed individually based models demonstrating that trait covariances can evolve simply due to fluctuating selective pressures.

right click here to download a sample video demonstrating the evolution of a simple pattern of trait covariance.

Quantitative Gentics and Trait Covariance Matricies

under construction
stuff with Niels and Derek