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Bell, Alison
Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Biology
B.A., University of Chicago
Ph.D., University of California at Davis
Research Areas
Proximate and ultimate factors that shape correlated behavioral traits
My empirical research program is devoted to applying an overall integrative view towards studying behavioral syndromes in threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). I am interested in looking at behavioral syndromes from both the "bottom up" and the "top down", which requires using techniques from diverse fields, from endocrinology to population biology, with an eye toward using new genomic tools. A promising strategy for studying behavioral syndromes is to compare the relationships between behaviors at different time scales (at one point in time, through ontogeny, and over evolutionary time), and to compare physiological mechanisms at each of these scales.
I am also interested in the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals, and anthropogenic activities generally, on animal behavior. Endocrine disrupting chemicals are chemicals in the environment that can interfere with the vertebrate endocrine system. Increasingly, widespread abnormal or maladaptive behaviors have been attributed to the presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment. At the same time, behavioral endpoints are becoming increasingly recognized as sensitive, reliable biomarkers of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. I am interested in whether long term, chronic exposure to environmentally-relevant concentrations of endocrine disrupters can produce subtle effects on behavior, and whether such effects have consequences at the population level.
Representative Publications
Sih, A., Bell, A.M., Johnson, J.C (invited chapter). 2008 Behavioral syndromes. In 'Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology', edited by D. Westneat and C. Fox, University of Chicago Press.
Sih, A., Bell, A.M. (invited submission). 2008 Insights from behavioral syndromes for behavioral ecology. Advances in the Study of Behavior.
Bell, A.M. In press. 2008 Genetic basis of fish behavior (invited chapter). In 'Fish Behaviour', edited by C. Magnhagen, V.A. Braithwaite, E. Forsgren & B.G. Kapoor, Science Publishers, Inc.
Bell, A.M. and Sih, A. 2007 Predation favours behavioural consistency between boldness and aggressiveness. Ecology Letters 10:828-834.
Alvarez, D. and Bell, A.M. 2007 Stream sticklebacks are more bold than pond sticklebacks. Behavioural Processes 76:215-217.
Bell, A.M. 2007 News and Views: Personality in animals. Nature 447:539-540.
Sih, A. and Bell, A.M. 2007 Insights from behavioral syndromes for the evolutionary genetics of human personality. European Journal of Human Personalty 21:626-628.
Bell, A. M. 2007 Future directions in behavioral syndromes research. Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences Series B 274: 755-761.
Bell, A.M., Winberg, S., Backstrom, T., Pottinger, T.G., Huntingford, F.A. 2007 Variable responses to ecologically-relevant challenges in sticklebacks. Physiology and Behavior 91:15-25.
Malhi RS, Rhett G, and Bell AM. 2006. Mitochondrial DNA evidence of an early Holocene population expansion of threespine sticklebacks from Scotland. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 40:148-154.
Bell AM. 2005. Behavioral differences between individuals and populations of threespined stickleback. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 18(2):464-473.
Bell AM, and Stamps JA. 2004. The development of behavioral differences between individuals and populations of threespined stickleback. Animal Behaviour. 68:1339-1348.
Clotfelter E, Bell AM. and LeVering K. 2004. Endocrine disrupting chemicals and their effects on animal behaviour. Animal Behaviour. 68:465-476.
Sih A, Bell AM, Johnson JC, and Ziemba RE. 2004. Behavioral syndromes: an integrative review. Quarterly Review of Biology. 79:241-277.
Additional Information
Collaborative Projects:
Tom Pottinger (University of Lancaster), Felicity Huntingford (University of Glasgow) Analyses of whole-body homogenate concentrations of cortisol using radioimmunoassay (RIA)
Svante Winberg (University of Oslo), Tobias Backstrom (Uppsala University) Analyses of brain monoamines using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
Ripan Malhi (Trace Genetics) Analyses of DNA sequence variation in different stickleback populations
Katie Peichel (Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Institute) Measurement of candidate gene expression using rt-PCR
Andy Sih (UC Davis) Tests of the fitness consequences of behavioral syndromes using semi-natural experiments with predators
Related Research (By Area):
Neuroethology
Neurogenomics and Sociogenomics
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