behavioral ecology & evolution

The dynamics in a population or a community are mediated by the interactions among its members and impacted by its external environment. These dynamics can have emergent properties, which are patterns arising from these intricate interactions and are not immediately apparent when examining individual components of the system. Research program in my lab brings in cutting-edge developments in network analyses and statistical learning together with field observations, lab experiments, and/or agent-based models to address key questions at the interface of modern ecology and evolution. This is a powerful synthesis of methods, which we have already used with success on diverse systems all of which feature emergent properties in the context of eco-evolutionary and behavioral questions. Examples of some past work include decision-making and group dynamics in fish, task allocation in ant colonies and evolution of perception in digital ecologies. 

For ongoing work in the lab, we have already developed new opportunities to ask difficult, cutting-edge questions by deploying the same battery of methods to an even more diverse set of problems, while continuing to work on the aforementioned modern ecological systems. For example, niche partitioning and spatial ecology of fish parasitic interactions, decoupling mate choice and reproductive success in fish, hierarchy and territorial dynamics in cooperative breeding birds etc.

Relevant papers:

1. A Swain and W F Fagan, “Group size and decision-making: Experimental evidence for Minority Games in fish behavior”, Animal Behaviour, Volume 155, pp. 9-19 (2019)

2. A Swain*, T Hoffman*#, K Leyba and W F Fagan, “Exploring the evolution of perception: An agent-based approach” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9, p.457. (2021) (*equal contributions, #Undergraduate mentee)

3. A Swain*, S Williams*, L J Di Felice* and E A Hobson “Interactions and information: Exploring task allocation in ant colonies using network analysis”, Animal Behaviour, 189, pp.69-81 (2022) (*equal contributions)

2. Ecology and Evolution of Parasitic isopods of Fish

Fish play a major role in aquatic ecosystems, by controlling the populations of other organisms through predation, mediating nutrient fluxes, and acting as ecosystem engineers. They also serve as a major source of sustenance for a large proportion of humans globally. Therefore, understanding the impact of various parasites on fish populations is important for both ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services rendered to humans (fisheries). Isopods from the family Cymothoidae are often larger than other fish parasites. Their larger size and obligate nature lead to a greater degree of tissue damage, inflammation, and constant irritation in their fish hosts. These isopods attach to different parts of the host’s body: the buccal cavity, the branchial cavity, and the skin surface. Some species even bore into the host skin and live inside the skin pouch. Unlike their sister isopod families, such as Aegidae or Gnathiidae, which are temporary parasites and detach from their hosts after a blood meal, the Cymothoids spend their complete adult life attached to the host and feeding on blood, mucus, and flesh. Along with collaborators, my lab is interested in understanding the ecology and evolution of these unique parasites.

(Primary collaborators: Zoological Survey of India; J K Seth, Sandeep Mohapatra)