Complex Ecological and Evolutionary Systems

Dr Colby Tanner

Research Fellow

Dr Colby Tanner

Member of the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research & Theoretical Ecology Research Group & Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology Group. Currently a visiting researcher at the University of Lausanne in the Keller Group, funded by an IRCSET INSPIRE-Marie Curie International Mobility fellowship.

Research Themes

I am interested in how a collection of individual behaviors plays a part in group dynamics. Sometimes the group behaves like the sum of many smaller parts (i.e., individuals). But other times, groups display more complex dynamics, not predicted by summing across individuals. These interactions are of particular interest to me. Whether it be in colonies of ants fighting to defend localized resources from interspecific competitors, crabs shoving their way into well defined groups, or queenless ants (my new favorite) sorting within- and among-colony conflicts, my main objective is to determine how individuals make decisions, and how these decisions affect the group. Of course, effects on the group feed back to affect individuals, and the process starts again. Such complexity is the perfect place for me to combine field studies, lab experiments, computer simulations (including social network analysis), more complicated statistics like mixed-effects models, and a bit of proper modeling now and then.

Publications

Linking individual behaviour to group dynamics

Tanner, C.J., & Jackson, A.L. 2012. Social structure emerges via the interaction between local ecology and individual behavior. Journal of Animal Ecology, 81(1), 260-267. doi

Tanner, C.J., & Jackson, A.L. 2011. The combination of social and personal contexts affects dominance hierarchy development in shore crabs (Carcinus maenas). Animal Behaviour, 82(5), 1185-1192. doi

Tanner, C.J., Salalı, G.D. & Jackson, A.L. 2011. The ghost of social environments past: dominance relationships include current interactions and experience carried over from previous groups. Biology Letters, 23(7), 818-821. doi

Dermody, B.J., Tanner, C.J. & Jackson, A.L. 2011. The evolutionary pathway to obligate scavenging in Gypsvultures. PLoS ONE 6(9) e24635. doi (Open Access)

Competition and Aggression

Tanner, C.J. & Adler, F.R. 2009. To fight or not to fight: how context affects interspecific aggression for competing ants. Animal Behaviour, 77: 297-305. doi

Tanner, C.J. 2009. Individual experience-based foraging can generate community territorial structure for competing ant species. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 63: 591-603. doi

Tanner, C.J. 2009. Chill Out: Cold-induced narcosis promotes aggressive behavior in the ant Formica xerophila. Insectes Sociaux, 56: 64-69. doi

Tanner, C.J. 2008. Aggressive group behavior in the ant Formica xerophila is coordinated by direct nestmate contact. Animal Behaviour, 76: 1335-1341. doi

Tanner, C.J. 2008. Resource characteristics and competition affect colony and individual foraging strategies of the wood ant Formica integroides. Ecological Entomology, 33: 127-136. doi

Tanner, C.J. 2006. Numerical assessment affects aggression and competitive ability: a team-fighting strategy for the ant Formica xerophila. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 273: 2737-2742. doi

Aquatic predator/prey dynamics

Tanner, C.J. & Branstrator, D.K. 2006. Generational and dual-species exposures to invertebrate predators influence relative head size in Daphnia mendotae. Journal of Plankton Research, 28: 793-802. doi

Urban Animal Behavior

Tanner, C.J., Salalı, G.D. & Jackson, A.L. 2011. Feeding and non-feeding aggression can be induced in invasive shore crabs by altering food distribution. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 65(2), 249-256. doi

Other research

O'Dwyer, L., Lamberton, F., Bokde, A.L.W., Ewers, M., Faluyi, Y.O., Tanner, C., Mazoyer, B., O'Neill, D., Bartley, M., Collins, D.R., Coughlan, T., Prvulovic, D., & Hampel, H. 2012. Using support vector mechanics with multiple indices of diffusion for automated classification of mild cognitive impairment. PLoS ONE, 7(2), e32441. doi

O'Dwyer, L., Lamberton, F., Bokde, A.L.W., Ewers, M., Faluyi, Y.O., Tanner, C., Mazoyer, B., O'Neill, D., Bartley, M., Collins, D.R., Coughlan, T., Prvulovic, D., & Hampel, H. 2011. Multiple Indices of Diffusion Identifies White Matter Damage in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease. PLoS ONE, 6, e21745. doi

O'Dwyer L, Lamberton F, Bokde AL, Ewers M, Faluyi YO, Tanner C, Mazoyer B, O'Neill D, Bartley M, Collins DR, Coughlan T, Prvulovic D, Hampel H. 2011. Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Mixed-Effects Models to Investigate Primary and Secondary White Matter Degeneration in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment. Journal of Alzheimers Disease, 26(4), 667-682. doi

Molloy, S.F., Tanner, C.J., Kirwan, P., Assaolu, S.O., Smith, H.V., Nichols, R.A.B., Connelly, L. & Holland, C.V. 2011. Sporadic Cryptosporidium infection in Nigerian children:risk factors with species identification. Epidemiology and Infection, 139(6), 946-954. doi

Other publications

McNally, L. & Tanner, C.J. 2011. Flexible strategies, forgiveness, and the evolution of generosity in one-shot encounters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(44), e971. doi (this is a letter commenting on Delton et al. 2011)

Contact

Department of Zoology, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
Email: tannerc 'at' tcd.ie , ct_ zero 'at' yahoo.com
Tel: + 353 1 896 2571
Fax: + 353 1 6778094