Back to: MUN, OSC, Abrahams Lab

Jeremy Mitchell Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Abrahams Lab) Ocean Sciences Centre Memorial University of Newfoundland email: jsmitchell@mun.ca phone: 709-737-3723

Recent Work

Current Research Publications

Social ecology of a cooperatively-breeding cichlid with Eva Jutzeler, Dik Heg, & Michael Taborsky Department of Behavioural Ecology, University of Bern In a Neolamprologus pulcher group, the hierarchy within each sex functions as a queue for social dominance and, with dominance, greater opportunities for reproduction. By manipulating the sexes of subordinate group members while holding other components of group composition constant, we were able to explore the importance of a group's gender composition.

Habitat choice in shell-nesters with Sabine Wirtz & Michael Taborsky Department of Behavioural Ecology, University of Bern Several Tanganyikan cichlid species use empty snail shells as nest sites. We used shell addition experiments to study patterns of shell use at a field site near Mpulungu, Zambia.

Queues for reproduction in sex-changing anemonefish with Larry Dill Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University Like a N. pulcher group, an anemonefish group functions as a queue for the opportunity to reproduce. But because anemonefish can change sex, all group members are in the same queue. As a doctoral student, I considered some of the implications of this social system. I worked with a population of Amphiprion ocellaris anemonefish at Bunaken Island, North Sulawesi.

Thanks: I joined the Taborsky lab as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow. I received additional fellowship support from the Berner Burgergemeinde. Research was funded through grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation to Michael Taborsky and Dik Heg. A field season in Zambia was funded through a grant from the University of Bern. Evi Zwygart and Peter Stettler provided technical assistance with the aquarium-based work. The Mpulungu Fisheries Office provided logistic support in Zambia — the advice and support of H. Phiri and R. Shapola were particularly helpful. During my doctoral studies, Larry Dill and I received logistic support, equipment, and research or fellowship funding from Sam Ratulangi University, the CIDA Eastern Indonesia University Development Project, NSERC, SFU, the Canada-ASEAN Centre, Garfield-Weston, B.C. Packers, William and Ada Isabelle Steele, Petro-Canada, Kodak Canada, and Bonica Precision. B. Pratasik introduced the field site to us and acted as the local sponsor.