Linda A. Whittingham Professor B.S., University of Michigan 1983 M.S., University of Michigan 1988 Ph.D., Queen's University 1992 Postdoctoral Fellow University of Oslo, Norway 1992-93 Australian National University 1993-94 Louisiana State University 1994-96	Office: Lapham 499 Phone: 414-229-2252 FAX: 414-229-3926 Email: whitting@uwm.edu Personal Homepage Electronic Reserve Materials:
Behavioral Ecology

Research Interests

My research investigates how paternity, ecological factors and evolutionary history influence parental investment patterns and mating systems in birds. Birds provide an excellent opportunity to study parental investment theory, because in most species both males and female provide extensive parental care. Furthermore, many recent studies of birds have shown that females often have young sired by males on other territories (i.e. extra-pair young). This extra-pair mating produces a genetic mating system that is very different from the observed social mating system. Paternity (the proportion of young in the brood sired by the resident male) is expected to influence male parental behavior because selection is expected to favor males that do not provide care to unrelated young. However, predicting how the level of male parental investment will vary in relation to paternity is complicated. Several ecological factors (e.g. food abundance, density and breeding synchrony) may influence levels of paternity as well as the importance of male parental care to offspring survival. I use field experiments and molecular techniques (i.e. DNA fingerprinting and microsatellites) to examine the relationship between paternity and male parental investment in birds. I am also interested in the evolution of behavioral and life history traits. Currently, I am investigating the relative influence of phylogeny (i.e. evolutionary history) and ecology on the evolution of different forms of male parental care (e.g. incubating eggs or nestlings, feeding nestlings or fledglings) in the swallows (Hirundinidae). I am using DNA sequences from mitochondrial genes to estimate the swallow phylogeny which will be used to examine evolutionary patterns of the different forms of male parental investment in relation to ecological changes such as nest structure.

Selected Publications

Whittingham, L.A., P.O. Dunn and J.K. Nooker. In press. Maternal influences on brood sex ratios: An experimental study in tree swallows. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B Tarof, S.A., P.O. Dunn and L.A. Whittingham. 2005. The role of melanin- and carotenoid-based ornaments in male-male competition and female choice in the common yellowthroat. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 272: 1121-1127. Pitcher, T., P.O. Dunn and L.A. Whittingham. 2005. Sperm competition and the evolution of testes size in birds. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 18: 557-567. Sheldon, F.H., L.A. Whittingham, R.G. Moyle, B. Slikas and D.W. Winkler. 2005. Phylogeny of Swallows (Aves: Hirundinidae) estimated from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution 35: 254-270. Whittingham L.A. and P.O. Dunn. 2005. Effects of extra-pair and within-pair reproductive success on the opportunity for selection in birds. Behavioral Ecology 16: 138-144. Brylawski, A.M.Z. and L.A. Whittingham. 2004. An experimental study of mate guarding and paternity in house wrens. Animal Behaviour 68: 1417-1424. Poirier, N.E., L.A. Whittingham and P.O .Dunn. 2004. Males achieve greater reproductive success through multiple broods than through extra-pair mating in house wrens. Animal Behaviour 67: 1109-1116. Badyaev A.V., M.L. Beck, G.E. Hill, L.A. Whittingham. 2003. The evolution of sexual size dimorphism in the house finch: V. Maternal effects. Evolution 57: 384-396. Whittingham, L.A., Dunn, P.O. and E.D. Clotfelter. 2003. Parental allocation of food to nestling tree swallows: the influence of nestling behavior, sex, and paternity. Animal Behaviour 65: 1203-1210. Whittingham, L.A., S.M. Valkenaar, N.E. Poirier and P.O. Dunn. 2002. Maternal condition and nestling sex ratio in house wrens. Auk 119: 125-130. Whittingham, L.A. and H. Schwabl. 2002. Maternal testosterone in tree swallow eggs varies with female aggression. Animal Behaviour 63: 63-67. Lifjeld, J. T., P.O. Dunn and L.A. Whittingham. 2002. Short-term fluctuations in cellular immunity of adults tree swallows feeding nestlings. Oecologia 130: 185-190. Thusius, K.J., K.A. Peterson, P.O. Dunn and L.A. Whittingham. 2001. Sexual selection through within-pair and extra-pair mate choice in the common yellowthroat (Geothylpis trichas). Animal Behaviour 62: 435-446. Thusius, K.J., P.O. Dunn, K.A. Peterson and L.A. Whittingham. 2001. Extrapair paternity is influenced by breeding synchrony and density in the common yellowthroat. Behavioral Ecology 12: 633-639. Whittingham, L.A. and P.O. Dunn. 2001. Male parental care and paternity in birds. Current Ornithology 16: 257-298. Peterson, K.A., K.J. Thusius, L.A. Whittingham, and P.O. Dunn. 2001. Allocation of male parental care in relation to paternity within and among broods of the common yellowthroat Geothylpis trichas. Ethology 107: 573-586. Whittingham, L.A. and P.O. Dunn. 2001. Survival of extrapair and withinpair offspring in tree swallows. Behavioral Ecology 12: 496-500. Dunn, P.O., L.A. Whittingham and T.E. Pitcher. 2001. Mating systems, sperm competition and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in birds. Evolution 55: 161-175. Whittingham, L.A. and P.O. Dunn. 2000. Offspring sex ratios in tree swallows: females in better condition produce more sons. Molecular Ecology 9: 1123-1129.