Individual Listing

3346 SPIETH HALL
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521

Reznick, David

Professor of Biology

College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Biology


Biography

 

Former Institution

University of Maryland

Degrees

PhD Biology 1980

University of Pennsylvania

Awards

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
U.C. Riverside Faculty Research Lecturer (1999)
Distinguished Professor, University of Miami (1999)


Research Area

Research Specialization - evolutionary biology.

My general interest is in studying the process of evolution by natural selection from an experimental perspective and testing evolutionary theory in natural populations.  I primarily work on guppies from the Caribbean Island of Trinidad.  Guppies are found in high and low predation environments that differ in the species of predators that guppies co-occur with.  This contrast is found repeatedly in different drainages and the different predation regimes are often right next to one another, separated by a waterfall.  Guppies from high predation environments experience much higher mortality rates.  High mortality is associated with earlier maturity, a higher rate of investment of resources in reproduction, and the production of more and smaller offspring.  All of these differences have a genetic basis.  Mortality rates can be manipulated by either introducing guppies from high predation localities into sites from which they and their predators had previously been excluded by waterfalls, thus lowering mortality rates, or by introducing predators into low predation sites over barrier waterfalls, thus increasing mortality rates.  Such experiments have shown that live histories evolve as predicted by theory and in a fashion that is consistent with the earlier comparative studies They have also shown that evolution by natural selection can be remarkably fast, on the order of four to seven orders of magnitude faster than inferred from the fossil record.  I am currently studying the evolution of aging in this same system.

Publications

Reznick, D.  N., Shaw, F.  H., Rodd, F.  H.  & Shaw, R.  G.  Evaluation of the rate of evolution in natural populations of guppies (Poecilia reticulata).  Science 275, 1934-1937 (1997). <

Reznick, D.  N.  Life history evolution in guppies (Poecilia reticulata): Guppies as a model for studying the evolutionary biology of aging.  Experimental Gerontology 32, 245-258 (1997).

Reznick, D.  N., Butler M.  J., I., Rodd, F.  H.  & Ross, P.  Life history evolution in guppies (Poecilia reticulata).  6.  Differential mortality as a mechanism for natural selection.  Evolution 50, 1651-1660 (1996). 

Reznick, D.  N., Rodd, F.  H.  & Cardenas, M.  Life-history evolution in guppies (Poecilia reticulata: Poeciliidae).  IV.  Parallelism in life-history phenotypes.  American Naturalist 147, 319-338.  (1996).

Reznick, D.  N.  & Bryga, H.  Life-history evolution in guppies (Poecilia reticulata: Poeciliidae).  V.  Genetic basis of parallelism in life histories.  American Naturalist 147, 339-359 (1996). 

Reznick, D.  A., Bryga, H.  & Endler, J.  A.  Experimentally induced life-history evolution in a natural population.  Nature 346, 357-359 (1990). 

Reznick, D.  N.  Life history evolution in guppies.  2.  Repeatability of field observations and the effects of season on life histories.  Evolution 43, 1285-1297 (1989). 

Reznick, D.  N.  & Bryga, H.  Life-history evolution in guppies.  1.  Phenotypic and genotypic changes in an introduction experiment.  Evolution 41, 1370-1385 (1987).

Reznick, D.  N.  & Endler, J.  A.  The impact of predation on life history evolution in Trindadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata).  Evolution 36, 160-177 (1982). 

Reznick, D.  N.  The impact of predation on life history evolution in Trinidadian guppies: the genetic components of observed life history differences.  Evolution 36, 1236-1250 (1982).