Natalie Pilakouta

University of Aberdeen | ABDN · School of Biological Sciences

When relatives mate, their inbred offspring often suffer a reduction in fitness-related traits known as inbreeding depression. There is mounting evidence that inbreeding depression can be exacerbated by environmental stresses, such as starvation, predation, parasitism, and competition. Parental care may play an important role as a buffer against in...

A maternal effect is a causal influence of the maternal phenotype on the offspring phenotype over and above any direct effects of genes. There is abundant evidence that maternal effects can have a major impact on offspring fitness. Yet, no previous study has investigated the potential role of maternal effects in influencing the severity of inbreedi...

Keywords: burying beetle direct benefits inbreeding mate choice mating success Nicrophorus vespilloides sexual selection Inbreeding occurs when relatives mate with each other, and it often has detrimental effects for the fitness of any resulting offspring. It is an important issue in ecology and evolutionary biology with profound implications for g...

1.In light of global climate change, there is a pressing need to understand and predict the capacity of populations to respond to rising temperatures. Metabolic rate is a key trait that is likely to influence the ability to cope with climate change. Yet, empirical and theoretical work on metabolic rate responses to temperature changes has so far pr...

In light of global climate change, there is a pressing need to understand how populations will respond to rising temperatures. Understanding the effects of temperature changes on mating behaviour is particularly important, given its implications for population viability. To this end, we performed a meta-analysis of 53 studies to examine how tempera...

Environmental conditions can impact the development of phenotypes and in turn the performance of individuals. Climate change, therefore, provides a pressing need to extend our understanding of how temperature will influence phenotypic variation. To address this, we assessed the impact of increased temperatures on ecologically significant phenotypic...

In light of global climate change, there is a pressing need to understand and predict the capacity of populations to respond to rising temperatures. Metabolic rate is a key trait that is likely to influence the ability to cope with climate change. Yet, empirical and theoretical work on metabolic rate responses to temperature changes has so far prod...

The generation of variation is paramount for the action of natural selection. Although biologists are now moving beyond the idea that random mutation provides the sole source of variation for adaptive evolution, we still assume that variation occurs randomly. In this review, we discuss an alternative view for how phenotypic plasticity, which has be...

Given the threat of climate change to biodiversity, a growing number of studies are investigating the potential for organisms to adapt to rising temperatures through changes in their physiology, morphology, and behaviour. Earlier work has predicted that evolutionary adaptation to climate change will be accompanied by a shift in temperature preferen...

In light of climate change, the ability to predict evolutionary responses to temperature changes is of central importance for conservation efforts. Studying parallel evolution in natural populations inhabiting contrasting thermal environments presents a powerful approach for understanding and predicting responses to increasing temperatures. In this...

Despite an extensive body of theoretical and empirical literature on biparental cooperation, it is still unclear whether offspring fare equally, better or worse when receiving care by two parents versus a single parent. Some models predict that parents should withhold the amount of care they provide due to sexual conflict, thereby shifting as much...

There are three social dimensions within a family: parent-parent interactions, parent-offspring interactions, and offspring-offspring interactions. All of these interactions are subject to evolutionary conflict, which occurs whenever interacting individuals have divergent evolutionary interests. Family interactions and family conflict are often inf...

The presence of a predator can result in the alteration, loss or reversal of a mating preference. Under predation risk, females often change their initial preference for conspicuous males, favouring less flashy males to reduce the risk of being detected by predators. Previous studies on predator-induced plasticity in mate preferences have given fem...

A maternal effect is a causal influence of the maternal phenotype on the offspring phenotype over and above any direct effects of genes. There is abundant evidence that maternal effects can have a major impact on offspring fitness. Yet, no previous study has investigated the potential role of maternal effects in influencing the severity of inbreedi...

Winning or losing a prior contest can influence the outcome of future contests, but it might also alter subsequent reproductive decisions. For example, losers may increase their investment in the current breeding attempt if losing a contest indicates limited prospects for future breeding. Using the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, we tested...

Winning or losing a prior contest can influence the outcome of subsequent contests, but it might also alter subsequent reproductive decisions. For example, losers may increase their investment in the current breeding attempt if losing a contest indicates limited prospects for future breeding. Using the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, we te...

Sexual conflict arises whenever males and females have divergent reproductive interests. The mechanisms mediating the resolution of sexual conflict have been studied extensively in the context of parental care, where each parent adjusts its decision about how much care to provide based on its partner's workload. However, there is currently no infor...

Inbreeding results from matings between relatives and can cause a reduction in offspring fitness, known as inbreeding depression. Previous work has shown that a wide range of environmental stresses, such as extreme temperatures, starvation, and parasitism, can exacerbate inbreeding depression. It has recently been argued that stresses due to intras...

Inbreeding results from matings between relatives and can cause a reduction in offspring fitness, known as inbreeding depression. Previous work has shown that a wide range of environmental stresses, such as extreme temperatures, starvation, and parasitism, can exacerbate inbreeding depression. It has recently been argued that stresses due to intras...

Handicapping experiments on species with biparental care show that a focal parent increases its contribution when its partner is handicapped. Such results are interpreted as evidence for negotiation, whereby each parent adjusts its amount of care to that of its partner. However, it is currently unclear whether the focal parent responds to a change...

Handicapping experiments on species with biparental care show that a focal parent increases its contribution when its partner is handicapped. Such results are interpreted as evidence for negotiation, whereby each parent adjusts its amount of care to that of its partner. However, it is currently unclear whether the focal parent responds to a change...

Ecological factors have been shown to influence mate choice, resulting in the alteration, loss, and even reversal of mate preference. One such factor is the presence of a predator during mate choice, because females that associate with conspicuous males may experience a higher risk of mortality in high-predation environments. Despite accumulating s...