Volker Rudolf
Rice University, TX·Ecology & Evolution
Why don't all animals act as selfishly as possible? And how does the timing of seasons shape who eats whom in nature?
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
- Topics
cannibalism
kin discrimination
kin recognition
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jan 2030
What they work on
- Measure natural variation in cannibalistic behavior within and among wild populations of the flour beetle Tribolium confusum, to establish how much this extreme selfish behavior differs in nature.
- Test how limited dispersal and genetic diversity shape the joint evolution of cannibalism and kin discrimination (recognizing relatives), using experimental evolution of flour beetle populations under controlled movement constraints.
- Test how food scarcity as an environmental stress shapes the evolution of cannibalism and its links to kin recognition and dispersal, starting from beetle populations with different natural cannibalism levels.
- Manipulate the sequence and spacing of breeding times of three pond amphibian species forming a one-predator, two-prey module, to test how timing changes the strength and direction of indirect interactions.
- Build a temporally explicit community ecology model, informed by the pond experiments, that tracks seasonal changes in species presence, density and traits to predict when indirect interactions are amplified or weakened.
More about the research
These two questions link a pair of projects on how behavior and timing govern interactions within and between species. One uses flour beetles to ask how cannibalism evolves together with other social behaviors. The other uses amphibians in ponds to ask how the order and spacing of seasonal life cycles change the indirect ways species affect one another.
Why it matters
Seasonal timing is shifting as environments change. Knowing how timing shapes species interactions could help predict effects on biodiversity, ecosystem stability and the services ecosystems provide to people. The cannibalism work tests basic principles of how selfishness and cooperation evolve. Its findings may also inform agriculture and pest management, since the study species is a widespread flour pest.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Temporal dimension of indirect effects: Linking the order and spacing of phenologies to indirect interactions in seasonal communities.
NSF · Feb 2025 – Jan 2030
Explaining variation in extreme selfish behavior: Untangling the co-evolutionary relationship of cannibalism, dispersal and kin discrimination.
NSF · May 2025 – Apr 2029
Closest labs
Jerome Goddard
Auburn University at Montgomery, AL·Mathematics & Statistics
Test whether predators change density-dependent emigration, Allee effects and prey stability, using experiments with two Tribolium flour beetle species and a shared natural enemy.
Chris Funk
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether cutthroat trout predators are more sensitive to rising water temperatures than their tailed frog tadpole prey, combining stream environment measurements, genomics and physiology experiments to measure heat adaptation.
Pete Guiden
Hamilton College, NY·Ecology & Evolution
Test whether overabundant white-tailed deer indirectly simplify rodent communities, narrow rodent diets and raise Lyme disease prevalence in northeastern US forests, using deer exclosure fences and unfenced controls.
The school
Rice University: 24 labs on PI Pages, $278M a year on research, 267 research doctorates a year.
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