Laboratory Members
Matt poses in front of a stranded iceberg in Alaska.
Matthew Wund, postdoctoral research fellow
I am generally interested in the dynamics of adaptive divergence following a population’s invasion of a new environment. In particular, I aim to understand how populations respond to new selective environments, and how individual variation in behavior and/or morphology may influence the evolutionary journey a population will take when forced to adapt to those new challenges.
1) The role of phenotypic plasticity in adaptive divergence
An interest that stems from my graduate research with flexible bat echolocation is how phenotypic plasticity can influence adaptive divergence. When individuals encounter new environments, selection across generations is not the only mechanism by which phenotypes can change. Additionally, individual plasticity, which is quite common, may play an important role in allowing individuals to survive on the new adaptive landscape until selection can bring them to a new local fitness peak. A fascinating possibility is that the newly-expressed phenotypes may in part determine the course of future evolution, because a particular plastic response exposes only particular phenotypes to selection. My graduate work focused on how bats change their echolocation calls in response to foraging in different habitats, and a long-term research goal is to determine how individual plasticity of echolocation may allow founder populations to exploit novel habitats, and ultimately to evolve to fill new niches. Currently, I, along with John Baker and Justin Golub, are examining the role of ancestral plasticity of trophic morphology in the evolution of benthic and limnetic ecotypes in stickleback fish.
2) The effects of relaxed and reversed selection on the evolution of behavioral adaptations 
When populations invade new habitats, they often encounter a reduced predator assemblage relative to their ancestral population. Because predators generally exert substantial selection on their prey, relaxed selection by some ancestral predators may result in the loss of adaptations specific to those predators. This is particularly intuitive when the adaptation in question is an otherwise costly morphological trait such as spines or armor. The consequences of relaxed selection on antipredator behavior, which may or may not be costly to maintain during a period of relaxed selection, is less clear (and therefore more interesting!). Furthermore, should a population re-encounter predators similar to those of their ancestor (reverse-selection), how do the consequences of relaxed selection constrain the outcome of reverse-selection? To address these issues, I employ the threespine stickleback fish system, where populations experience a variety of predator assemblages, including the loss of some ancestral predators (relaxed-selection) and the re-introduction of ancestral predators (reverse-selection). I have recently received a postdoctoral research fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to explore these issues, and in particular, to determine the endocrine and genetic bases for population differences in behavior that result from differences in predator environment.
Previous Degrees
- Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2005
- M.S., Biology. The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2001
- B.S., Biology. The College of New Jersey. Ewing, 1999
Awards and Fellowships
- National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2006–present
- Regent’s Fellowship, The University of Michigan, 1999–02
- Edwin H. Edwards Fellowship, The University of Michigan, 2002–03
- Department of Biology Outstanding Senior Award, The College of New Jersey, 1999
- The College of New Jersey Academic Scholarship, 1995–99
- New Jersey Bloustein Scholarship, The State of New Jersey, 1995–99
Publications
Wund, M. A., Baker, J. A., Clancy, B., Golub, J. & Foster, S. A. 2008. A test of the 'flexible stem' model of evolution: ancestral plasticity, genetic accommodation, and morphological divergence in the threespine stickleback radiation The American Naturalist. 172, 449-462.
Wund, M. A., M. E. Torocco, R. T. Zappalorti and H. K. Reinert. In press. Activity ranges and habitat use of eastern kingsnakes, Lampropeltis getula getula, in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Northeastern Naturalist.
Messler, L., M. A. Wund, J. A. Baker and S. A. Foster. 2007. The effects of relaxed and reversed selection by predators on the antipredator behavior of the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Ethology. 113, 953-963.
Wund, M. A. 2006. Variation in the echolocation calls of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in response to different habitats. American Midland Naturalist. 156, 99-108.
Wund, M. A. 2005. Learning and the development of habitat-specific bat echolocation. Animal Behaviour. 70, 441-450.
Vandermeer, J., M. A. Evans, P. Foster, T. Hook, M. Reiskind, and M. Wund. 2002. Increased competition may promote species coexistence. Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99, 8731-8736.
Courses Taught
Lecturer, Clark University: Biodiversity for non-majors, Earth Systems Science for non-majors
Teaching Assistant, The University of Michigan: Evolution, Animal Behavior, Mammalogy, Animal Diversity, Introductory Biology
