Biology

Godfrey Roderick Bourne

 

Ph. D., University of Michigan
E-mail: bourneg@umsl.edu

Education Ph.D. 1983 (Behavior Ecology) SNRE/Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan
M.En. 1976 (Ecology) Institute of Environmental Sciences, Miami University
B.A. 1971 (Zoology) Ohio Wesleyan University

Godfrey R. Bourne (Fig 1), Associate Professor of Evolutionary and Tropical Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Missouri–St. Louis, is particularly interested in the mechanisms underlying the evolution of behavioral phenotypes and the fitness consequences of behavioral syndromes. His current research focuses on sexual selection and the trade-offs between life history strategies and the flexibility and adaptability of behavioral syndromes in populations of livebearing fish, Poecilia spp. (Fig 2) including work on the genetic basis of behavior. With this research he is investigating linkages among the brain, behavioral types, and fitness outcomes of mate acquisition by examining the degree to which variation in visual sensory system physiology leads to variation in behavioral types (boldness, aggressiveness, activity level) under sexual selection. Secondary research interests deal with unraveling the nature of determinants of fish assemblages in small Neotropical streams, herpetological assemblages at Kaieteur National Park (Fig 3), Guyana, which are impacted by illegal gold and diamond placer mining, frog breeding assemblages (Fig 4a) and their interactions with eavesdropping frog-biting midge (Fig 4b) assemblages, and bat and wetland bird assemblages. Godfrey is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of CEIBA Biological Center (Fig 5), Inc., a nonprofit organization designed to build capacity for Neotropical biotic research, education, and conservation in Guyana, and most of his research programs are conducted at CEIBA.

 

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Godfrey currently mentors three high school students in the students and teachers as research scientists (STARS) program, Elizabeth Karlslake (Fig 6; Shifts in South American molly behavioral types are related to increased exposure to piscivore predation risks), George Lynch (Fig 7; Attractiveness of individual anuran species to frog-biting midges (Corethrella spp.) at a pond breeding assemblage), and Jordan Masanoff (Fig 8; Female South American mollies are capable of assessing multiple male traits during mate choice), four UMSL undergraduates, Puja Sharma (Fig 9; Reproductive modes in frogs of the Kaieteur Tepui: a tool for conservation and park design), Jennifer Breaux (Fig 7), Eugenia Miller (Fig 10), and Cara Schweitzer (Fig 6; An empirical approach to life-history trade-offs and the evolution of behavioral syndromes in the pentamorphic livebearing fish, Poecilia parae), one University of Guyana student Marsha Karl (Fig 11; Costs of calling in male Bufo typhonius interacting with eavesdropping frog-biting midges Corethrella spp.).

 

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His graduate students include, one masters student from UMSL, Jamie Talley (Geographic variation in songs of the Rusty-margined Flycatcher (Fig 12): patterns of taxonomic affinities in Guyana), three doctoral candidates, Teri Allen (Fig 13; Middle Mississippi River islands: historical distribution and biological importance to fish community structure and organization), Jay King (Fig 14; Metapopulation analysis of chytrid fungus infections in the mountain chicken, Leptodactylus fallax (Anura: Leptodactylidae) on Dominica, West Indies), and Jeffrey Norris (Fig 15; Urbanization and the structure and organization of avian assemblages in Costa Rica), and one post doctoral associate Safi Darden (Fig 16; Crab-eating fox (Fig 17) expression and implications of behavioral syndromes in human changed environments). Godfrey now collaborates with Dr. Deborah Boege-Tobin (Fig 18; Structure and organization of a neotropical pond breeding anuran assemblage and their eavesdropping frog-biting midge assemblage), Drs. Felix Breden, Daren Croft (Fig 16), Michael Ferkin, Patricia Gowaty, Steven Hubbell, and Aweeda Newaj-Fazul (Fig 19; Life-history trade-offs and the evolution of behavioral syndromes in syntopic livebearing fish, Poecilia spp. in Guyana), and doctoral candidate L. Cynthia Watson (Fig 20; The role of receiver bias in sexual selection, and costs and benefits of boldness in male pentamorphic livebearing fish, Poecilia parae).

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Recent Scholarship

Kok, P.J.R., Sambhu, H., Roopsind, I., Lenglet, G.L. & Bourne, G.R. 2006. A new species of Colostethus (Anura: Dendrobatidae) with maternal care from Kaieteur National Park, Guyana. Zootaxa 1238:35-61.

Kok, P.J.R., MacCullock, R.D., Gaucher, P., Poelman, E.H., Bourne, G.R., Lathrop, A., & Lenglet, G.L. 2006. A new species of Colostethus (Anura: Dendrobatidae) from French Guiana with a redescription of Colostethus beebei (Noble 1923) from its type locality. Phyllomedusa 5:43-65.

Bourne, G.R. & Sammons, A.J. Boldness, aggression and exploration: evidence for behavioural syndromes in male pentamorphic livebearing fish, Poecilia parae. Behaviour, in correction October 2007.

Bourne, G.R., Weisrock, D.W., Prince, W. & Clarke, D. Mitochondrial DNA sequences confirm the presence of the Surinam endemic frog, Dendrobates azureus in Guyana. Contributions to the Study of Biological Diversity, Smithsonian Institution, Submitted October 2006.

Bourne, G.R. Sexual conflict, sexual selection and alternative mating tactics in the frog Eleutherodactylus johnstonei. Contributions to the Study of Biological Diversity, Smithsonian Institution, Submitted October 2007.

Bourne, G.R. & Watson-Rodney, L.C. Receiver bias and the non-sexual origin of female mate choice in the Livebearing fish, Poecilia parae. Animal Behaviour, for submission late October 2007

Watson, L.C. & Bourne, G.R. Costs and benefits of boldness in male pentamorphic livebearing fish, Poecilia parae. Behavioral Ecology, for submission late October 2007.