19 – 23 August 2024 – Last week, our collaborators Suzanne Alonzo and Holly Kindsvater visited our team in Flødevigen – Kim Halvorsen, Tonje Knutsen Sørdalen and Torkel Larsen – for a four day workshop. The goal was to develop methods for inferring mating patterns and sexual selection from PIT-telemetry data collected on the corkwing wrasse spawning ground in Austevoll. This dataset tracks nest visits and interaction of more than 800 uniquely tagged individuals over 6 years. During the workshop, we tested hypotheses regarding the role of body size in male-male competition and mate choice in space and time, with some intriguing preliminary findings. This work is part of Workpackage 4 of the CoastVision project in which we demonstrate the usefulness of machine learning in ecological research, by applying a recently developed computer vision that accurately sex the individuals in the dataset based on photos taken when they were tagged. Suzanne also gave a seminar for the scientist at the station on: “How do sexual selection and plasticity interact to shape how organisms respond to changing environments?”
