Ulla Tuomainen
CV Pub
E-mail: ulla.tuomainen(@)helsinki.fi
I started working on my PhD in the Helsinki Stickleback Group in September 2008. Initially I joined the group as a research assistant in 2006. I am especially interested in evolution, animal behavior, sexual selection and the effects of human-induced environmental changes on species. The working title of my thesis is "Local adaptation in threespine stickleback populations to human-induced eutrophication". The degree of eutrophication varies in different parts of the Baltic Sea. My aim is to find out whether sticklebacks can adapt to these varying conditions and whether this variation is visible as changes in reproductive behavior or in the genetic structure of the different populations. The visual mate choice of sticklebacks is compromised under turbid conditions so it may be that the fish try to compensate this by altering their courtship behavior (and/or relying on cues other than visual ones in these novel environments). I will use DNA-analyses, behavioral experiments and a common garden experiment in trying to solve these questions. The DNA-analyses are done in collaboration with Dr. Mats Grahn and PhD student Emma Lind from Södetörn University College in Sweden.
