PhD Candidate Josh Manning was recently awarded one of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s Grants-in-Aid of Research to fund his research on the ‘dear enemy’ effect in Caribbean parrotfishes. Male parrotfishes are often territorial, defending harems of females from conspecific males to increase access to mating opportunities. However, territoriality is costly, and only arises when the benefit of defense outweighs the cost. In many taxa, territory holders have been found to act less aggressively toward neighboring territory holders (i.e., dear enemies) than with unknown intruders. This effect may reduce the cost of territory defense, making territoriality more economical. Josh will be investigating the presence of this effect in the territorial male stoplight parrotfish, Sparisoma viride, on the fringing reefs of Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands during his upcoming field season.
Extra congrats to Josh for his research being selected for the William R. Dawson Award this year from among funded GIAR projects!
