Generally, my research interests lie in the field of behavioural ecology and evolutionary ecology. Functional aspects are the core foundations of my research interests. I am intrigued by interactions among individuals, between sexes, competitors, or coexisting species. The relations of such behaviour to its social and environmental context and its population level consequences are the main focus of my research interests. I consider the research questions per se as more important than the specific species chosen to test my hypotheses. Most rewarding to me are systems and research questions that allow a variety of experimental approaches to challenge theory.

Sexual selection is an interesting field that allows me to combine behaviour, evolution, ecology, and population biology in my research and enables me to apply both theoretical and empirical approaches. I am currently mainly interested in context-dependent plasticity of sexual selection. Studies of sexual selection have traditionally been focussing on female choice or male-male competition. The interaction of the two processes and especially the opposite phenomena, male choice and female-female competition have been less frequently studied. Similarly, female ornaments in species with conventional sex roles have received very little attention and their function and evolution are still not fully understood. Another unsolved puzzle in evolutionary biology that I have been fascinated by is the paradox of sexual-asexual coexistence.

Current research activities aim at studying how sexual selection and natural selection interact. Most research on sexual selection thus far has been carried out while ignoring the social and population ecological context. At the moment, we address most of our research questions experimentally by using gobies - small marine fish- as model systems. Thereby, we take advantage of studying several populations across the Baltic Sea with its large spatial and temporal variation of ecological conditions. Our current line of research will shed light on the links between individual behaviour and population ecology. Within this framework, we will address interactions between choice and competition, study the plasticity and evolution of sex roles within and across populations with diverging ecological contexts.

• Paternal care and animal personality: The role of inter-individual variation in paternal care in a changing marine environment
  (with Dennis Sprenger, Nils Anthes, and Kai Lindström, funded by DFG).
• Context-dependent plasticity of sexual selection: links between individuals behaviour and population dynamics”
  (with Isabel Mück and Martin Vallon, funded by VolkswagenFoundation).
• Interspecific interaction of two goby species – effects on reproductive behavior
  (with Katharina Schulz, funded by Nottbeck Foundation).
• Stability and maintenance of sexual- asexual coexistence and quirky modes of reproduction
  (with Hanna Kokko)

In Helsinki

In Tübingen

Please contact me for possibilities of joining the team to assist with field work, or doing a thesis project.

Kokko H., Heubel KU (2011) Prudent males, group adaptation, and the tragedy of the commons. Oikos 120:641-656.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2011.19544.x [link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2011.19544.x/abstract]

Heubel KU, Rankin DJ, Kokko H (2009) How to go extinct by mating too much: Population consequences of male mate choice and efficiency in a sexual-asexual species complex. Oikos 118:513-520.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.17024.x [link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.17024.x/abstract]

Heubel KU, Schlupp I (2008) Seasonal plasticity in male mating preferences in sailfin mollies. Behavioral Ecology 19:1080-1086

doi: 10.1093/beheco/arn105 [link: http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/6/1080.abstract]

Kokko H, Heubel K (2008) Condition-dependence, genotype-by-environment interactions and the lek paradox. Genetica 132:209-216

DOI: 10.1007/s10709-007-9166-1 [link: http://www.springerlink.com/content/c2258683t39200v7/]

Kokko H, Heubel KU, Rankin DJ (2008) How populations persist when asexuality requires sex: the spatial dynamics of coping with sperm parasites. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275:817-825

doi: 10.1098/rspb.2007.1199 [link: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/275/1636/817.short]

Heubel KU, Hornhardt K, Ollmann T, Parzefall J, Ryan MJ, Schlupp I (2008) Geographic variation in female mate-copying in the species complex of a unisexual fish, Poecilia formosa. Behaviour 145:1041-1064

DOI: 10.1163/156853908784474533 [link: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/beh/2008/00000145/00000008/art00003]

Heubel KU, Lindström K, Kokko H (2008) Females increase current reproductive effort when future access to males is uncertain. Biology Letters 4:224-227

doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0630 [link: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/2/224.abstract]

Hanna Kokko

Kai Lindström

Dennis Sprenger

Nils Anthes

Ola Svensson

]