I have many academic and non-academic interests. I was driven into biology by a passion to understand the causes and consequences of variation. From the size and longevity of species to the colors and sounds that organisms use to communicate, to the size and structure of social groups, the natural word is defined by its variability. Most of my research has been focused on understanding the social and ecological causes driving biological diversity, within populations and between species. I implement multiple techniques in my research, like wild populations monitoring, genetic analyses, and field and lab experiments. Below I describe the general lines that I have been carrying out, as well as some of my main results. Independently of whether I use I/we, all work has been carried out in collaboration with students, technicians, colleagues, and mentors.
As years passed, I have become fixated with understanding the causes and the consequences of the climate catastrophe. As I understand it more, I have changed my life habits, the way I spend my free time, what I read, and what my research lines are, to help create awareness in the scientific community and beyond, and to help push for real solutions. I have become very active in the international collective Scientist Rebellion, have given talks, written articles, and helped co-organize protests and science outreach events, to help raise awareness of the unfolding catastrophe, its links to social and economic inequality, and the lack of action taken by world leaders for decades.
Here is the letter of our position as an international collective (which you can support by signing no matter your academic level):
https://scientistrebellion.org/sign
And this is our position on the outcome of COP28:
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/scientist-rebellion-cop28
You can also see our international campaigns here:
https://scientistrebellion.org/campaigns
And see the talks we have organised here:
https://www.youtube.com/@ScientistRebellion
Follow our social media:
https://www.instagram.com/scientistrebellion
https://www.instagram.com/rebelioncientificamx
https://twitter.com/RebelionC_mex
Summary of my research lines:
Climate, ecology, conflicts, and cooperation in social living::
Conflicts are everywhere. They are at the core of any interaction between non-identical biological units, no matter how seemingly mutualistic or altruistic an interaction may seem. This is because natural selection acts differently on genes within each unit, favoring a different optimal outcome for each of them. Evolutionary conflicts generate adaptations and counter-adaptations, which triggers speciation, and produces striking courtship, begging and floral displays. But despite the ubiquity of conflicts, time and time again cooperation has evolved and changed life on Earth. Several times and millions of years apart, selfish elements stopped reproducing to pass copies of themselves not by direct descent, but through others. Some cooperative groups transformed into new biological entities, like genomes, multicellular organisms, and eusocial societies. How can cooperation win, despite the intrinsic prevalence of conflicts within and between biological units?
Using phylogenetic comparative meta-analyses, we are analyzing whether harsh climatic environments have driven the evolution of multiqueen colonies in ants (where around half of all known species host multiple queens per nest, which decreases relatedness between colony members). We are also investigating whether more variable environments selected polymorphisms across species. This follows up the finding that in the socially polymorphic ant, Formica selysi, queens that typically breed cooperatively have higher mortality when breeding alone in harsh environments. This research validated the long-held but unproven assumption that individuals that usually breed in cooperative groups are less successful at reproducing independently in harsh environments and suggested that if family groups settle or evolve in a harsh environment, these habitats may trap them into remaining together.
On smaller families, I study how ecological factors influence social conflicts. Using burying beetles, I investigated the emergence and resolution of evolutionary conflicts between family members within a wider ecological context, using the phoretic mites they carry. Mites change how males and females divide the costs of pre-hatching care (of nest preparation), with males bearing greater costs than females in the presence of mites. Furthermore, through continuous monitoring of wild populations, I discovered that the number of mites fluctuates stochastically in the wild, which prevents these outcomes from consistently falling close to a specific family member’s optimum. Therefore, the environment where family members interact causes conflicts of interests to arise between them, and it changes who has the upper hand over the outcome of these conflicts.
I am currently following this research line with burying beetles in Mexico. If you’d like to get involved in this research line, get in touch!
Collaborators:
Selected publications:
De Gasperin* O., Blacher*, P.B.& M. Chapuisat. 2021. Social insect colonies are more likely to accept unrelated queens when they come with workers. Behavioral Ecology, 32:1004-1011. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab047
De Gasperin* O., Blacher, P. B., Grasso, G. & M. Chapuisat. 2020. Winter is coming: harsh environments limit independent reproduction of cooperative-breeding queens in a socially polymorphic ant. Biology Letters, 16:20190730. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0730
De Gasperin* O. & R.M. Kilner. 2016. Interspecific interacions and the scope for parent-offspring conflict: high mite density changes the trade-off between offspring size and number in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. PLoS ONE, 11:e0150969. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150969
De Gasperin* O. & R.M. Kilner. 2015. Interspecific interactions change the outcome of sexual conflict over pre-hatching parental investment in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Ecology and Evolution,5:5552–5560. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1795
De Gasperin* O., Duarte, A. & R.M. Kilner. 2015. Interspecific interactions explain variation in the duration of paternal care in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. Animal Behaviour, 109:199–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.08.014
De Gasperin* O. & R.M. Kilner. 2015. Friend or foe: interspecific interactions and conflicts of interest within the family. Ecological Entomology, 40:787–795. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12259
The genetics underpinnings of dispersal and of social living:
Both within and among species, traits co-vary. For instance, dispersal co-evolves with social group living, division of labor, and with fecundity, across multiple species in the tree of live. If alternative dispersal traits co-vary with other characters within a species, an immediate question that arises is what prevents maladaptive combinations of traits from occurring?
One possible solution for generating intraspecific polymorphisms that adaptively combine multiple traits is to link co-adapted alleles in supergenes. Supergenes are non-recombining genomic regions that collectively produce discrete multi-trait phenotypes, like sexes, ecotypes, and social forms. Explaining the long-term maintenance of supergenes is challenging, because one haplotype could go to fixation.
In the Alpine silver ant, Formica selysi, a large and ancient social supergene with two haplotypes, M and P, controls colony social organization. Single-queen colonies only contain MM females, while multiqueen colonies contain MP and PP females. The derived P haplotype, found only in multiqueen colonies, selfishly enhances its transmission through maternal effect killing, which could have led to its fixation.
With a combination of field and laboratory experiments, we showed that the P haplotype has deleterious effects on female fitness. We also did two comprehensive analyses of the dispersal mechanisms associated with the supergene. First, in a field monitoring experiment, we found that males and females from alternative social forms did not display strong differences in their propensity to leave the nest and disperse, nor in their mating behaviour. Instead, the social forms differed substantially in sex allocation, wit monogyne colonies producing 90% of the females flying to swarms, whereas multiqueen colonies producing 57% of the males. Second, in a study that spanned five years, six experiments, and over 3,000 individuals, we showed that the M haplotype induces phenotypes with higher dispersal potential and higher fecundity, for both sexes. Specifically, MM queens, MP queens, and M males are more aerodynamic and more fecund than PP queens and P males, respectively.
Differences between MP and PP queens from the same colonies reveal a direct genetic effect of the supergene on dispersal-related traits and fecundity. The derived haplotype P, associated with multi-queen colonies, produces queens and males with reduced dispersal abilities and lower fecundity.
More broadly, in these studies we uncovered wide similarities between the Formica and Solenopsis systems reveal that supergenes play a major role in linking behavioural, morphological, and physiological traits associated with intraspecific social polymorphisms.
Collaborators:
Michel Chapuisat
Pierre Blacher
Amaranta Fontcuberta
Serge Aaron
Sarah Chérasse
Plus many students, including Guillermo Grasso, Solenn Sarton -Lohéac, Roxanne Allemann, Mohamed Yasser Abdo, Mia Kotur Corliss and Sidonie Nicole
Selected publications:
Cryptic recessive lethality of a supergene controlling social organization in ants. Molecular Ecology, 32:1062–1072.https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16821
Blacher, P.B., De Gasperin O. & M. Chapuisat. 2022. Cooperation by ant queens during colony-founding perpetuates alternative forms of social organization. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 76:165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03105-1
Foncuberta*, A., De Gasperin* O., Dinde, S., Avril, A. & M. Chapuisat. 2021. Disentangling the mechanisms linking dispersal and sociality in supergene-mediated ant social forms. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences. 288:20210118. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0118
Animal architecture:
Many animals modify and build their environment, from underground burrows to constructed nests. The extraordinary diversity in nest architecture is thought to be adaptive, meaning natural selection favored designs that enhance reproductive success while minimizing building and maintenance costs to those building it. In the specific cases of nests, they should be designed to maximize the survival of the developing offspring, while minimizing costs of building and maintenance to the parents. Although it is clear how some aspects of nest architecture function to promote successful reproduction, it has been much harder to isolate elements of nest design that are linked to the costs borne by parents of nest construction and maintenance. Using burying beetles, I designed a novel method that measured the sphericity of the carcass nest on which they breed. We discovered that only larger beetles are able to construct rounder carcass nests, and that rounder carcass nests are associated with lower maintenance costs.
I am currently following this research line with burying and dung beetles in Mexico. If you’d like to get involved in this research line, get in touch!
Publicationes:
De Gasperin* O. & R.M. Kilner. 2015. Friend or foe: interspecific interactions and conflicts of interest within the family. Ecological Entomology, 40:787–795. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12259
Collaborators:
Communication:
Organisms use information from their environment to adjust their behaviours and strategies. Some organisms eavesdrop information from other individual’s traits (or ‘cues’), and other times, information is transmitted through ‘signals’. Signals were shaped by natural selection to modify a receivers’ behaviour. Communication (the transfer of information) is widespread across the tree of life, with examples described in bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. Signals vary greatly, including in the channels through which they are transmitted (i.e., visual, chemical, acoustic, and/or tactile), to the targeted individual for which they are intended (e.g., friends, foes, predators, parents, potential mating partners), to the specific context in which they are used (e.g., intra or interspecific communication). From aposematic signals deterring potential predators, to offspring begging food from their parents, sometimes dishonestly, to con-specifics informing group members about the presence of food, of nest sites or of enemies, signals take all shapes and sizes in the tree of life.
In many species, organisms deploy multiple signals through the same or through different channels to modify the receiver’s behaviour. widespread across the tree of life. Some organisms use the same social signal across multiple settings. We are investigating whether the blue belly patches displayed by male in mesquite lizards, Sceloporus grammicus, functions during male-male antagonistic interactions and during female-male interactions. We carried out two experiments, in the first one males could interact with other males (some with unmanipulated blue belly patches, some with paler blue belly patches, and some with brighter blue belly patches), and in the second one, females could observe and court males (some with unmanipulated blue belly patches, some with paler blue belly patches, and some with brighter blue belly patches). Both experiments were designed to minimize morphological differences among males. We found that males were less aggressive towards brighter males, and that females display more courtship behaviours towards brighter males also.
Photography: Víctor Argaiz
Collaborators:
Other projects just starting where you can get onboard!:
Coverage of the climate catastrophe by the Mexican media:
According to the sixth analysis of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released this year, we are on a trajectory towards a 3.2°C temperature increase relative to pre-industrial levels by the end of this year. According to the IPCC, this figure reflects subjecting almost half of the human population, to between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people, to make a choice between dying or, if possible, migrating (IPCC 2023). Many academics argue that these projections are not compatible with maintaining societies as we know them, and state that we are headed for a collapse unless radical global action is taken (Kemp et al. 2023). Meanwhile, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to rise. Even though international treaties have been reached since the 1990s to limit global warming, there has been emitted more CO2 (the most abundant GHG in the atmosphere, and the one that correlates with global warming) into the atmosphere in the last three decades than in all previous human history (Stoddard et al. al. 2021). Nor is there any technology that can remove CO2 from the atmosphere (today, 40Gt of CO2 is emitted per year and 0.002Gt of CO2 are captured with technology; CarbonBrief 2023). Emblematically, the richest 10% of humans generate 50% of the world’s emissions (Chancel 2022), and the billionaire social class alone produces enough emissions to break the Paris agreement (Gössling and Humpe 2023). Meanwhile, the 99.7% of the people who are being subjected to, and will be subjected to, extreme climate conditions live in the ‘Global South’ (Lenton et al. 2023).
Humanity has never been at as much risk as it is now, yet the mass media do not report the level of emergency that exists, neither in frequency nor correctly. For example, a study conducted in the UK found that the words ‘dog’ and ‘cake’ were used between 10 and 23 times more often than the term ‘climate change’1. Likewise, those reports of climate catastrophe talk about individual actions, such as recycling, far more often than much more determinant aspects of the climate crisis, such as energy and energy efficiency. In addition, the terms describing the problem – climate change, climate emergency and climate crisis – were mentioned 50 times more often than those that refer to how to address the problem (terms such as climate justice, climate action and solutions).
How does the media report this crisis in Mexico? To date, there has been no systematic study has been carried out investigating this question. Therefore, in this project, you will conduct a systematic review and investigation of how the media report the climate catastrophe in Mexico, and whether the veracity and frequency with which the media reports the climate catastrophe has changed over time, as has been the case in English-language English-language media (McAllister et al. 2021).
Relevant references:
Chancel, L. 2022. Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019. Nature Sustainability 5:931-938. Gössling, S., and A. Humpe. 2023. Millionaire spending incompatible with 1.5° C ambitions. Cleaner Production Letters 4:100027.
IPCC, A. S. 2023. Synthesis report of the IPCC sixth assessment report (AR6)–Summary for Policymakers. Kemp, L., C. Xu, J. Depledge, K. L. Ebi, G. Gibbins, T. A. Kohler, J. Rockström et al. 2022. Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119:e2108146119.
Legg, S. 2021. IPCC, 2021: Climate change 2021-the physical science basis. Interaction 49:44-45.
Lenton, T. M., C. Xu, J. F. Abrams, A. Ghadiali, S. Loriani, B. Sakschewski, C. Zimm et al. 2023. Quantifying the human cost of global warming. Nature Sustainability:1-11.
McAllister, L., M. Daly, P. Chandler, M. McNatt, A. Benham, and M. Boykoff. 2021. Balance as bias, resolute on the retreat? Updates & analyses of newspaper coverage in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Canada over the past 15 years. Environmental Research Letters 16:094008.
Mukherji, A., P. Thorne, W. Cheung, S. Connors, M. Garschagen, O. Geden, B. Hayward et al. 2023. Synthesis Report Of The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). United Nations.
Stoddard, I., K. Anderson, S. Capstick, W. Carton, J. Depledge, K. Facer, C. Gough et al. 2021. Three decades of climate mitigation: why haven’t we bent the global emissions curve? Annual Review of Environment and Resources 46:653-689.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/15/cake-mentioned-10-times-more-thanclimate-change-on-uk-tvreport#:~:text=%E2%80%9CCake%E2%80%9D%20was%20mentioned%2010%20times,and%20%E 2%80%9Csolar%20power%E2%80%9D%20combined.
Climate change, participatory science, and species distribution:
Termites have high biological, economic, and ecosystem importance. They generate an estimated global cost of $40 billion annually by destroying forests and real estate. Their nests emit high amounts of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, they maintain forest moisture, recycle up to 95% of organic matter, and decompose human waste, especially paper. Biologically, there are more than 3,000 described species, and they are eusocial, where there is reproductive division between members of a colony, making them ideal for evaluating evolutionary hypotheses.
Exotic termites are expected to expand their distribution as the climate crisis progresses, migrating and settling in regions previously inhospitable to them. However, it has not yet been assessed whether species in Mexico will increase their distribution. In this project, the current and potential distribution of termites will be assessed through participatory science in collaboration with spraying companies. Current and future distribution will be detected using different representative concentration trajectories. With information on the projected distribution of these pests, preventive measures can be taken to mitigate the negative effects associated with them. In addition, large-scale biological collections will be formed to allow genetic and morphological analyses of these species.
Relevant references:
Rust, M. K. Su, N.-Y. 2012 Managing social insects of urban importance. Annual Review of Entomology 57, 355-375.
Rasmussen, R. Khalil, M. 1983. Global production of methane by termites. Nature 301, 700-702.
Ashton, L. et al., 2019. Termites mitigate the effects of drought in tropical rainforest. Science 363, 174-177.
Govorushko, S. 2019. Economic and ecological importance of termites: A global review. Entomological Science 22, 21-35.
Korb, J. 2007. Termites. Current Biology 17, R995-R999.
Buczkowski, G. Bertelsmeier,C. 2017. Invasive termites in a changing climate: A global perspective. Ecology and Evolution 7, 974-985.
Why are there flexible interspecific interactions?:
Interspecific interactions, or interactions between individuals of different species, are classified based on the effect of the interaction on the average fitness of the individuals of each species. Parasitism and predation by definition have a negative effect on the fitness of members of a species, and positive for those of the other, whereas in mutualism, the interaction is beneficial to members of both species. However, the nature of interactions between species may be more dynamic than is often assumed. In many cases, the same interaction may jump along a continuum depending on a variety of factors. Some emblematic examples of ‘dynamic interactions’ occur between plants and their mycorrhizal ‘mutualists’, and between plant-protecting ants. Some plants eliminate their mycorrhizal fungi when phosphorus in the soil is abundant, suggesting that in such a context the costs of maintaining their mycorrhizal fungi outweigh the benefits. Also, many ants protect plants from herbivores, but the benefit to the plant of the ants’ presence depends on whether herbivory is present or not. Therefore, to understand the ecology of an interspecific interaction, it is necessary to assess the relative effect of that interaction with respect to the sex and age of the interacting individuals, as well as in relation to the specific context of the interaction, rather than estimating an ‘average’ effect for each species.
This project includes 1) making a broad literature review and meta-analysis of fluctuating interspecific interactions in the tree of life, and 2) using phoresy as a biological system to investigate the dynamism of inter-specific interactions experimentally. Phoresy occurs when one species uses another as a means of transport. The individual being transported (or phoretic) usually has low autonomous mobility, such as mites. While the dispersing organism is usually highly mobile, such as flying insects or mammals.
Relevant references:
Poulin, R. Morand, S. 2000 The diversity of parasites. The quarterly review of biology 75, 277-293.
Herre, E.A., Machado, C., Bermingham, E., Nason, J., Windsor, D., McCafferty, S., Houten, W.V. Bachmann, K. 1996 Molecular phylogenies of figs and their pollinator wasps. Journal of Biogeography 23, 521-530.
Thompson, J.N. 2014 Interaction and coevolution, University of Chicago Press.
Herre, E.A. West, S.A. 1997 Conflict of interest in a mutualism: documenting the elusive fig wasp–seed trade–off. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 264, 1501-1507.
Cushman, J. H. Whitham, T.G. 1989 Conditional mutualism in a membracid-ant association: temporal, age-specific, and density-dependent effects. Ecology 70, 1040-1047.
Sun, S.-J. 2022 A framework for using phoresy to assess ecological transition into parasitism and mutualism. Symbiosis 86, 133-138.