This trip will continue to build upon our previous work in Mexico started in 2007.  We are focusing on two general questions.  First, we are interested in understanding how species of Poeciliopsis fishes are able to coexist in areas of sympatry throughout western Mexico.  Part of this project includes research conducted by graduate Laura Scott for her thesis.  Second, we are exploring life history evolution and phylogeography in the fish Poecilia butleri.  This work on P. butleri is being led by my colleague Dr. Jaime Zúñiga-Vega of UNAM.  This field trip is funded by a SANT award and by a BYU Mentoring Environment Grant.  I will have opportunities for two or three students to come on this 10 day field expedition.

This will be an exploratory trip to make collections of Brachyrhaphis species in Panama.  I am particularly interested in determining patterns of life history variation in these species, and in understanding the nature of reproductive barriers that have evolved that maintain species boundaries.  This work is part of a larger project exploring the role of local adaptation and in driving speciation in this group of Central American fishes.  Depending on funding, there may be opportunities for up to three students to participate on this trip.

I plan to make several field trips this summer throughout the Bonneville Basin of Utah, Nevada and Idaho looking for evidence of rapid evolutionary diversification in the desert minnow speckled dace.  This widespread species occurs in a variety of selective environments and has apparently evolved traits to thrive under quite different ecological conditions.  I am particularly interested in evolution that has occurred over the past 15,000 years following the recession of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville.  My hunch is that we can learn a lot about parallel evolution of life histories and body shape by focusing on this fish.  This work will be funded by a Mollie and Karl Butler Fellowship from the Redd Center for Western Studies.  There will be opportunities for several students to participate in these field trips (up to 4 students per trip, with trips lasting anywhere from 1-4 days).