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Staff Profile
Dr Theresa Rueger
Senior Lecturer in Tropical Marine Biology
- Email: theresa.rueger@ncl.ac.uk
- Personal Website: http://www.drtrueger.com
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Animal Behavior, Evolutionary Ecology, Marine Ecology, Field Research, Molecular Ecology.
EDUCATION
2012- 2017
PhD. College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
Advisors: Geoffrey Jones, Naomi Gardiner.
Dissertation: Social relationships in small habitat-dependent coral reef fish: an ecological, behavioural and genetic analysis.
2011
Graduate Diploma of Scientific Methods, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
Advisor: Naomi M. Gardiner.
Dissertation: Relationships between pair formation, site fidelity and sex in a coral reef cardinalfish.
2007- 2010
Bachelor of Science, Biology Department, Christian Albrecht University, Kiel, Germany.
Advisor: Ulrich Sommer.
Dissertation: Temperature effects on the cell size of marine phytoplankton.
CURRENT POSITIONS
2022-
Senior Lecturer in Tropical Marine Science.
School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, UK.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
2019-2023
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow.
Boston University, USA & University of Exeter, UK.
Fellowship topic: Coral reef fish shape our understanding of social evolution.
2017-2019
Senior Project Consultant (Ecology), SLR Consulting, Townsville, Australia.
2017
Teaching associate, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
2012-2017
Teaching assistant, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia.
2011-2015
Resident researcher, Mahonia Na Dari, Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea.
2007-2012
Research assistant, Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany.
PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT
Rueger, T., MacDonald, C., Harrison, H., Gardiner, N., Jones, G. Mills, S. 2024. Strength and direction of sexual direction and sex roles vary between social groups in a coral reef cardinalfish. The American Naturalist, accepted https://doi.org/10.1086/731422.
Osborne, M., McKenna, T. J., Crawford, F., Rueger, T., Shah, B., Gott, M. R., & Labadorf, A. T. 2024. Reading Outside the Lines: A Systematic Approach for Detecting Bias in Scientific Communication. bioRxiv, 2024-06.
Yllan, L., Heatwole, S., Wong, M., Rueger, T. 2024. The effect of social context on behaviour in anemonefish hierarchies. Animal Behaviour, 209: 83-93
Francis, R., Catalano, K., Majoris, J., Rueger, T., D’Aloia, C., Bogdanowicz, S., Buston, P. 2022. Characteristics of breeding habitat, genetic mating system, and determinants of mating success in the sponge-dwelling goby Elacatinus lori. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, 76: 157.
Rueger, T., Bhardwaj, A., Turner, E., Barbasch, T., Trumble, I., Dent, B., Buston, P. 2022. Vertebrate growth plasticity in response to a mutualistic interaction. Scientific Reports, 12: 11238.
Rueger, T., Heatwole, S. Wong, M. 2022. Social rank and species-specific differences influence cooperation and conflict in anemonefish societies. Animal Behaviour. 187: 105-116.
Buston, P., Branconi, R., Rueger, T. 2022. Social Evolution: Formation, Maintenance, and Transformation of Social Groups. In:Evolution, Development and Ecology of Anemonefishes: Model Organisms for Marine Science (eds. V. Laudet & T. Ravasi)
Rueger, T., Wong, M., Heatwole, S., Branconi, R., Buston, P. 2021. The next frontier in understanding the evolution of coral reef fish societies. Frontiers in Marine Science. 8: 665780.
Rueger, T., Bogdanowicz, S., Buston, P., Wong, M. 2021. Genetic relatedness in social groups of the emerald coral goby Paragobiodon xanthosoma creates potential for weak kin selection. Molecular Ecology. 30: 1311-1321.
Rueger, T., Harrison, H., Buston, P., Gardiner, N., Berumen, M., Jones, G. 2020. Natal philopatry increases relatedness within groups of coral reef cardinalfish. Proc B. 287: 20201133.
Barbasch, T., Rueger, T., Srinivasan, M., Wong, M., Jones, G., Buston, P. 2020. Substantial Plasticity of Reproduction and Parental Care in Response to Local Resource Availability. Oikos. 129: 1844-1855.
Rueger, T., Harrison, H., Gardiner, N., Berumen, M., Jones, G. 2019. Extra-pair mating in a socially monogamous and paternal mouthbrooding cardinalfish. Molecular Ecology. 28: 2625- 2635.
Giffin, A., Rueger, T., Jones, G. 2019. Ontogenetic shifts in microhabitat use and coral selectivity in three coral reef fishes. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 102: 55-67.
Rueger, T., Barbasch, T., Wong, M., Srinivasan, M., Jones, G., Buston, P. 2018. Reproductive control via the threat of eviction in the clown anemonefish. Proc B. 285: 20181295.
Rueger, T., Gardiner, N., Jones, G. 2018. Site fidelity facilitates pair formation in aggregations of coral reef cardinalfish. Oecologia. 186: 425-434.
Rueger, T., Gardiner, N., Jones, G. 2016. Homing is not for everyone: displaced cardinalfish find a new place to live. Journal of Fish Biology. 89: 2182-2188.
Rueger, T., Gardiner, N., Jones, G. 2016. Size matters: male and female mate choice leads to size-assortative pairing in a coral reef cardinalfish. Behavioural Ecology. 27: 1585-159.
Rueger, T., Harrison, H., Jones, G., Mansour, H., Berumen, M. 2015. Resolving genealogical relationships in the Pyjama cardinalfish, Sphaeramia nematoptera (Apogonidae) with 23 novel microsatellite markers. Conservation Genetics Resources. 7: 623-627.
Rueger, T., Gardiner, N., Jones, G. 2014. Relationships between pair formation, site-fidelity and gender in a coral reef cardinalfish. Behavioural Processes. 107: 119-126.
Rueger, T., Sommer, U. 2012. Warming does not always benefit the small- results from a plankton experiment. Aquatic Botany. 97: 64-68.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ON SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND MUTUALISMS
Since I use coral reef fishes as my model organisms and most of my studies are done in situ, disturbance events are part of my research. We followed a 2023 marine heatwave that resulted in severe bleaching and are investigating the impact on the anemonefish/ anemone mutualism.
SOCIAL EVOLUTION AND GROUP LIVING
Social groups in which some individuals forgo their own reproduction and cooperate with others present a number of paradoxes, since it is not immediately apparent how selection preserves the genes that underlie non-breeding strategies. While this question has usually been investigated in birds, mammals and social insects, new advances have been made by studying coral reef fishes. Buston and Wong have found that in both the clown anemonefish and the emerald coral goby, non-breeders will tolerate their position because they stand to inherit breeding positions, and because there are ecological and social constraints4. Also, breeders gain no obvious benefits from the presence of non-breeders, leaving us with the question: why do breeders tolerate non-breeders? I am currently working with both investigators on both systems, along with Mike Cant, to tackle that question using molecular approaches, long-term field experiments, and theoretical modeling. This, in turn, is laying the foundations for a number of other interesting projects.
Relevant publications
Buston, P., Branconi, R., Rueger, T. 2022. Social Evolution: Formation, Maintenance,
and Transformation of Social Groups. In: Evolution, Development and Ecology of Anemonefishes: Model Organisms for Marine Science (eds. V. Laudet & T. Ravasi)
Rueger, T., Heatwole, S. Wong, M. 2022. Cooperative and aggressive behaviors vary between ranks in anemonefish social hierarchies. Animal Behaviour in print. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.19.427348
EVOLUTION OF MATING SYSTEMS
One research goal is to understand the ecology and evolution of mating systems in coral reef fishes, using molecular tools as well as long-term field studies and behavioural experiments. This work already provided new insights into the mating systems of coral reef fishes, using cardinalfishes as models. Cardinalfish are paternal mouthbrooders, where fathers carry the brood in their mouth until they hatch. This costly investment leads to many interesting questions to explore, especially when it comes to sexual selection and mate choice. I am also interested in how fishes use social information in choosing a mate.
Relevant publications
SMALL-SCALE POPULATION DYNAMICS
Kin selection has long been thought to be the central driver for the evolution of complex groups. However, since marine animals usually have a larval dispersal phase, small-scale relatedness patterns were assumed to be unlikely in marine ecosystems. The last few decades have shown that larvae often return to their reefs of origin, therefore it is worthwhile investigating whether delayed dispersal, limited dispersal, or kin cohesion during dispersal may lead to elevated relatedness within groups. This work began during my PhD at James Cook University where I worked with the pajama cardinalfish, Sphaeramia nematoptera. Now I am using the emerald coral goby, Paragobiodon xanthosomus, to investigate small-scale relatedness patterns. For both species I surprisingly found elevated values of relatedness within groups. These findings reveal that small-scale relatedness patterns may play a role in social evolution of marine animals. Which dispersal patterns lead to the elevated relatedness within groups of some coral reef fishes is still under investigation.
Relevant publications
NES1202 Diversity of Marine Animals
NES1204 Academic and Professional Skills
NES2501 Tropical Marine Ecology
NES3204 Advanced Research Skills
NES3504 Global Marine Science