Recent Updates

19 October, 2022

First Conference Presentation in three years

The last three years have been both a blur and a drag, but we have finally come to a point with the pandemic where conferences are somewhat back to normal. The wonderful change being the availability for hybrid conferences being much more common, allowing me to present some work for the Society for Freshwater Science at their Pacific Northwest Chapter Annual Meeting. I am so grateful of the ability to not only contribute to this work but to present it at a conference and get some wonderful feedback.

Investigating the Influences of Environmental Variables on Catchability_No Sound'.jpg

7 June, 2022

Taking on a New Position

After a lot of work, a lot of applications, and a lot of emotions, I was offered a position as a quantitative research fisheries scientist for the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. This position feels like a dream for me. When I left to start my Master's program in 2014, my goal was to return to the US and apply to work with the Muckleshoot Tribe on invasive species and salmon. Somehow, through roundabout ways I have managed to do just that. I am currently working on a project that is examining populations of invasive and non-native salmonid predators in Lake Sammamish and the Lake Washington watershed.

30 June, 2020

Graduation In Absentia

Thanks to the global pandemic, my graduation was in absentia this year. The university is hoping to hold a make up when some sense of normalcy resumes, whenever that may be. Regardless, I was too excited about receiving my official document to even get a good picture!

4 June, 2020

Manuscript Accepted

In June, a manuscript from an experiment I collaborated on was accepted. I was very excited to get the chance to work with Libor and Barbara on this and learn their process of manuscript writing. It was a rewarding experience to disect and image brains for them.

Závorka, L., Koeck, B., Armstrong, T.A., Soğanci, M., Crespel, A. & Killen, S.S. Reduced exploration

capacity despite brain volume increase in warm-acclimated common minnow. Journal of

Experimental Biology 223: jeb223453. doi:10.1242/jeb.223453.

18 October, 2019

Viva (Thesis Defense)

On Friday the 18th of October, I completed my viva (thesis defense) with external examiner Alexander Kotrschal and internal examiner Felicity Huntingford. It was an intense and rewarding experience followed by much rejoicing.

18 September, 2019

Manuscript Accepted

A publication that I co-lead authored with Alexis Khursigara was published in Scientific Reports. We examined how exposure to crude oil altered shoal cohesion in a sport fish found off the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. This paper is the product of an intense month of experiments that Alexis and I completed, followed by months of submissions and revisions and resubmissions. It was a very exciting moment to get this paper accepted.

Armstrong, T., Khursigara, A.J., Killen, S.S., Fearnley, H., Parsons, K.J. & Esbaugh, A.J. Oil exposure

alters social group cohesion in fish. Scientific Reports 9: 13520.

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49994-1.

25 July, 2019

Photo Feature

An image of my research that was posted to twitter was picked up by Journalist Nicoletta Lanese for The Scientist Magazine's "Image of the Day" series. If you'd like to read what she wrote about my research click here!

5 July, 2019

Poster Award

At the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Seville Spain I was awarded the Irene Manton Poster Prize for the poster featured here.

2 - 5 July, 2019

SEBAMM

This year at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting I gave both a poster and oral presentation. The abstracts are featured here.

Does maternal mouthbrooding received during early development influence aggression and brain anatomy in adult fish?

Maternal care is widespread amongst animal taxa, with examples from mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates. This parental strategy influences offspring growth and survival as well as behaviour and brain anatomy. However, little is known about how maternal care received during development may influence the relationship between brain anatomy and aggression later in life. One-year-old African cichlids that were either deprived of maternal mouthbrooding at three days post fertilisation or left for the natural duration of maternal care, were observed for aggressive interactions in two contexts. First, two adult male fish, naïve to each other, were observed interacting in a novel environment with a single shelter resource. Each fish was tested twice, once with a fish of the same rearing condition and once with the opposing. Second, each fish was also observed while interacting with a mirror. Following behavioural assays brains were removed and imaged to determine gross anatomical differences and shape variation using geometric morphometrics. Further, a subsection of brain samples was stained to determine differences in neuron densities between rearing conditions. These measurements will be examined in relation to aggressive behaviours to determine correlations between brain anatomical variation and aggression after receiving different levels of maternal care. Preliminary results indicate that while there are no differences in dorsal brain shape, there are significant differences between brain region sizes. The influence of maternal care on the brain development and aggression has broad implications for the evolution of behaviour in African cichlids.

The influence of parental absence on offspring proactive-reactive personality axis in a cichlid with bi-parental care

Parental investment is known to increase growth and survival of offspring across many taxa. Recent evidence has suggested that the involvement of both parents in rearing can influence the development of social and aggressive behaviours in offspring. However, the role of biparental care in development and covariation of offspring behaviours with the sex of the individual is currently understudied. Neolamprologus brevis is a shell dwelling African cichlid that provides biparental care to its offspring. Dominant males of this species tend to be large and aggressive, while subordinate males resemble females in size and behaviour. This study investigated the role of biparental absence during early development on boldness, exploration and aggression in offspring. Further, correlations among these behaviours were examined based on offspring sex. We found that male offspring reared without parents were significantly more aggressive than those reared with parents. However, female offspring did not show an effect of parental absence on aggression. All behaviours showed strong covariation in individuals with parents present, but correlations among various behaviours were weaken among offspring reared without parents. These results suggest that parental presence results in the development of suites of correlated behaviours in this species and behavioural integration. These results also indicate that parental absence during development has a stronger influence on aggression in males than in females, which could influence mate acquisition and territory defence later in life.

Travel support from: American Association of Anatomists and the Company of Biologists

19 - 24 May, 2019

Ecology and Behaviour

This year at the Ecology and Behaviour Student Conference in Toulouse, I gave an oral presentation, abstract below.

Armstrong_ Sexual Selection and Parental

Does maternal mouthbrooding influence aggression and brain anatomy in adult fish?

Maternal care is widespread amongst animal taxa, with examples from mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates. This parental strategy is known to influence offspring growth and survival as well as behaviour and brain anatomy. However, little is known of how maternal care may influence the relationship between brain anatomy and aggressive interactions in adult fish. One-year-old African cichlids that were either deprived of maternal mouthbrooding at three days post fertilisation or left for the natural duration of maternal care, were observed for aggressive interactions in two contexts. In the first, two adult male fish, naïve to each other, were observed interacting in a novel environment with a single shelter resource. Each fish was tested twice, once with a fish of the same rearing condition and once with the opposing, before being observed interacting with a mirror. Following behavioural assays brains were removed and imaged to determine gross anatomical differences and shape variation using geometric morphometrics. Further, a subsection of brain samples was stained to determine differences in neuron densities between rearing conditions. These measurements will then be compared to aggressive behaviours in order to determine the correlations between brain anatomical variation and aggression under different levels of maternal care. Preliminary results indicate that while there are no differences in dorsal brain shape, there are significant differences between brain region sizes. Behaviour has yet to be analysed. The influence of maternal care on the development of this integral organ has wide implications for the evolution of behaviour in African cichlids.

2 - 3 April, 2019

Scottish Environment, Ecology, and Conservation Conference

SEECC is a student organised conference that highlights the work of post graduate and advanced undergraduate students focusing on ecological, environmental and conservation work in Scotland. As part of a team consisting of three post graduate students from the University of Glasgow, I have partnered with Scottish National Heritage, other Universities in Scotland and additional organisations to organise a two day conference that is free for students to attend and present their work. The conferences consists of posters, oral presentations, invited key note speakers and a debate on where Scotland conservation and environmental outreach and education will be in a post Brexit landscape.

22 August, 2018

Evolution 2018

Mouthbrooding African cichlids provide extended maternal care. But does the length of time offspring remain inside the mother's mouth alter the development of craniofacial morphology? Here we compare the shape of offspring which received full term maternal care and reduced maternal care.

Travel support from: Society for the Study of Evolution

29 June, 2018

Euro Evo Devo