0 projects

Date from new to old

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Interactions between brood parasites and their hosts in a heterogeneous landscape

Brood parasites and their hosts represent particularly suitable systems for studying the process of coevolution. A number of adaptations and counter-adaptations in hosts and parasites have previously been revealed, but few studies have considered dynamics between and within several host-parasite...

Awarded: NOK 3.3 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2010

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

The life history trade-off between immune function and brain development

As immunity has been proven to be costly in energetic terms, these investments are likely to conflict with other, important and energy-demanding fitness traits. Several studies have addressed trade-offs between the immune-system and other factors, like gr owth, development or reproductive investm...

Awarded: NOK 4.0 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2012

Location: Vestland

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

The early stages of adaptive divergence: the speed of evolution

In this proposed project we will study processes during the early phase of adaptive divergence. Lesjaskogsvatnet was colonized by grayling Thymallus thymallus in 1880 and during 120 years more than 20 demes have been established. Owing to profound tempera ture differences among tributaries, we ex...

Awarded: NOK 3.1 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2009

Location: Oslo

BIOEVO-Evolusjonsbiologi og økologi

Sexual selection and diversification: a multilevel analysis of mate choice cues in the bluethroat

Determining the causes and consequences of reproductive decisions is central to the understanding of evolutionary processes such as sexual selection and speciation. This research project represents an ambitious plan towards achieving a comprehensive under standing of the factors influencing the r...

Awarded: NOK 0.52 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2007

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Quantification and Characterization of Microbial Communities in Air.

There is a serious lack of knowledge concerning the presence, activity and dispersal of airborne microorganisms. Most studies describing the prevalence of airborne microorganisms have only applied traditional microbiological methods and evaluated the occu rrence of culturable bacteria, which is k...

Awarded: NOK 2.6 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2009

Location: Vestland

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Does ovarian fluid favour MHC-dissimilar sperm?

When males provide nothing but genes, female choice of mates is expected to favour individuals that can best increase offspring survival. This selection process may not only occur at an individual level, but also on the gamete level. Recent studies have i ndicated that the ova may select sperm on...

Awarded: NOK 2.7 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2010

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Life history patterns in large carnivores and their application for management and conservation.

Life-history is an organism's pattern of growth, reproduction and mortality, formed by long-term evolutionary processes and by immediate responses to the environment. This project has 3 main objectives: 1) evaluate the patterns of lifetime reproductive su ccess of male and female brown bears; 2) ...

Awarded: NOK 2.4 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2011

Location: Akershus

FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

The ecological and evolutionary significance of seed banks in Arabidopsis thaliana

Many studies of the genetic structuring of annual, selfing Arabidopsis thaliana populations on various geographical scales have been performed in recent years. Some studies conclude that local populations may contain relatively high amounts of genetic var iability both in phenotypic traits and pu...

Awarded: NOK 2.5 mill.

Project Period: 2007-2012

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Spatiotemporal dynamics of introduced bark beetles: resource competition, invasion risk and management

The movement and establishment of invasive species in new habitats is a global economic and ecological problem. The increased trade among countries and continents has increased the chances of introductions of new species. Once alien pest species have beco me established in their new habitats, the...

Awarded: NOK 2.8 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2010

Location: Akershus

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Cascading Effects of Mutualistic Interactions: From Insect Flower Visitation to Plant Community Dynamics

Ecologists have for a long time been interested in how negative plant-animal interactions, such as herbivory and seed predation affect the population dynamics of plant species, their distribution on small and large spatial scales, and the plant community species composition and diversity. Positiv...

Awarded: NOK 4.4 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2010

Location: Akershus

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Sperm morphology and function in passerine birds

The prime function of sperm cells is to fertilize eggs. Despite this common purpose, there is a tremendous diversity among animal taxa in sperm phenotypes. Part of the variation can be attributed to phylogenetic relatedness, and sperm are often used as di agnostic traits in taxonomy. But there is...

Awarded: NOK 5.0 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2010

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Hidden reservoirs of biological diversity - geobiology of unexplored endolithic communities associated with lichens

There is a large visible biological diversity on the surface of our planet, but it is less known that there are hidden reservoirs of biological diversity underneath the surface. Even if this subsurface biosphere is estimated to have a biomass of similar m agnitude as that of the surface biosphere...

Awarded: NOK 2.8 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2010

Location: Vestland

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Genetic diversity and speciation in ancient inbreeding lineages

Genetic diversity drives evolution. Processes which erode genetic variation, such as self-fertilization and sibling mating, are therefore expected to reduce the long-term survival of inbred lineages. Paradoxically, we do find ancient, species-rich lineage s in nature which have been inbreeding fo...

Awarded: NOK 2.1 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2010

Location: Vestland

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Signal evolution: adaptation and constraint

A central challenge in evolutionary biology is to understand what determines the reliability and flexibility of animal signals. We investigate signal evolution and signal discrimination in two contexts, mate choice and mimicry, with focus on how adaptatio n is affected by learning, plasticity, va...

Awarded: NOK 4.8 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2009

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Inferring regional patterns from local dynamics using spatially explicit simulation modelling and remote sensing data

The availability and quality of field data is one of the most severe limitations to studies of spatio-temporal population processes such as cyclic dynamics and population synchrony. We propose here an approach that will overcome many limitations concernin g data adequacy and which can dramaticall...

Awarded: NOK 3.3 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2009

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Allopolyploid evolution in plants: patterns and processes within the genus Viola

This project aims at disentangling ?diploid? lineages in ancient polyploid groups using the genus Viola (Violaceae) as study object. Chromosome numbers, isozymes and our preliminary data on two low-copy nuclear RNA polymerase genes all suggest that the ma jority of temperate groups of Viola have ...

Awarded: NOK 2.7 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2009

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Genetic basis and evolution of ventral plumage melanism in skuas (Stercorariidae)

The genetic basis of phenotypic change and adaptation is one of the major outstanding problems in evolutionary biology. Until recently it has been difficult to identify the genes involved, particularly in wild populations. The biochemical pathways of mela nin-based fur and plumage pigmentation ar...

Awarded: NOK 2.7 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2010

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Did vascular plants and bryophytes survive the last ice age in Scandinavia?

Glacial survival versus postglacial immigration of the Scandinavian alpine flora has been debated for more than 100 years, and has recently received increased attention with the development of molecular tools. Many vascular plant species occur disjunctly on both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean,...

Awarded: NOK 5.0 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2010

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Life histories for structured populations in fluctuating environments

This project aims at extending the Classical life history theory by merging an efficient state-dependent optimization technique that works well with structured populations (dynamic programmring) with evolutionary population dynamics (adaptive dynamics). T he resulting methodology can thus find op...

Awarded: NOK 2.6 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2009

Location: Vestland

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) on the Norwegian coast: fresh water colonisation, divergence rates and adaptive speciation

This project will investigate how historical contingency and evolutionary mechanisms interact to prime ecological and physiological adaptation, which may ultimately result in speciation in the threespined stickleback. This primarily marine species has fou nded numerous anadromous- and stationary ...

Awarded: NOK 2.8 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2009

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Behavioral syndromes in salmonid fish: Ecological and evolutionary implications

Variation in the physiological stress response has been correlated to a number of major axes of variation in behavior, including activity, shyness-boldness, and aggression. Sih and co-workers recently coined the term behavioral syndromes for this phenomen on, and pointed out several important eco...

Awarded: NOK 2.3 mill.

Project Period: 2006-2009

Location: Akershus

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Long term consequences of interspecific cross-fostering in the wild

The significance of learning has been relatively overlooked in studies of fundamental behavioural traits such as species recognition, mate choice and social dominance. I propose a project to investigate long term consequences of interspecific cross-foster ing in the wild in terms of such behaviou...

Awarded: NOK 2.5 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2009

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

The significance of thin layers aquatic plankton communities

Thin layers of plankton are increasingly in the focus of marine research, since new information on how organisms are distributed in the water column may change the way we perceive and model the dynamics of species interactions. Horizontal aggregations on larger scales are easy to confirm using st...

Awarded: NOK 2.0 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2009

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Male sperm control

Mutations in the male germ-line are common and in highly monogamous species males may benefit from selecting against own, mutated sperm. This will, in turn, reduce a male’s chance of fertilizing, but, on the other hand, prevent loss of DNA order down the family line. The importance of sperm selec...

Awarded: NOK 2.4 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2010

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

BIOEVO-Evolusjonsbiologi og økologi

Local adaptations in cuckoos and their hosts; a metapopulation approach: tillegg til 151641/V40

Coevolutionary dynamics allows revealing ongoing microevolutionary dynamics and adaptations. Interactions between obligate avian brood parasites and their hosts are suitable systems for the study of coevolution. Various adaptations and counter-adaptations have previously been described in both p...

Awarded: NOK 0.68 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2006

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Evolution of chloroplasts: addressing the genomic processes behind acquisition of secondary and tertiary organelles

The dinoflagellate chloroplasts (plastids) originate from eukaryotic photosynthetic endosymbionts. Rather than being derived from a single group (being monophyletic) the plastids of dinoflagellates are originate from several organism groups and are thus of polyphyletic origin. Most dinoflagellat...

Awarded: NOK 4.6 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2009

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Adaptive food web models

For almost a century, mathematical studies of ecosystem dynamics have been based on the Lotka-Volterra differential equation approach. This approach has been able to integrate different actors, such as resources, producers, predators, decomposers and dise ase vectors. The great success has, howev...

Awarded: NOK 2.3 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2009

Location: Vestland

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Evolution of mating type and vegetative incompatibility genes in fungi: The dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans as a model species

In recent years an international research initiative focusing on the devastating dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans has been established. Previous research suggests that S. lacrymans provides a unique model system to study evolutionary processes and life hi story traits in basidiomycetes, including...

Awarded: NOK 4.5 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2009

Location: Oslo

FRIBIO-Biologi og biomedisin

Life history strategies in ungulates: an experimental approach

A crucial task in ecology is to quantify trade offs between competing processes. Due to environmental correlation, large individual variability in expression of traits and small variability in allocation between competing traits, carefully designed exper iments are needed to quantify these relati...

Awarded: NOK 3.7 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2008

Location: Troms - Romsa - Tromssa

BIOEVO-Evolusjonsbiologi og økologi

Evolution of floral size in Campanula rotundifolia (Campanulaceae) - effects of selection by pollinators and gene flow

Campanula rotundifolia is a widespread plant that exhibits a clinal variation in flower size along altitudinal gradients. Generally, lowland populations exhibits plants with many small flowers and alpine populations exhibits plants with few large flowers. This variation also seems to covary with...

Awarded: NOK 1.6 mill.

Project Period: 2005-2006

Location: Trøndelag - Trööndelage

1 2