LUKE BLOCH
BIOLOGIST &
PHOTOGRAPHER
Research Interests
I am broadly interested in questions pertaining to tropical biodiversity such as: what is generating diversity, what maintains it, and how repeatable is evolution? In addition, conservation is a major focus of my work and I am actively engaged in conservation work within the environments I study.
Color Polymorphism, Multimodal Signals, & Accelerated Speciation in a Tropical Island Bird (Turdus poliocephalus)
My study aims to understand the role that polymorphism plays in generating diversity in the tropics of Southeast Asian Islands and Oceania. Using a wide spread bird, the island thrush (Turdus poliocephalus), as my study system I will address several questions: 1) what is the phylogenetic history and rate of divergence among taxa; 2) what are the behavioral mechanisms that drive and maintain this diversity and, 3) what are the molecular mechanisms that underlie such diversity in multimodal signals? I aim to answer these questions through the construction of a well-resolved phylogeny, behavioral experiments, and screening hundreds of loci that may underlie the phenotypic variation driving and maintaining diversity. Using several focal populations, specifically the Vanuatu populations and the several Indonesian populations, to conduct behavioral experiments to determine if song and plumage phenotypes function as prezygotic reproductive barriers and accelerate speciation through reinforced multimodal signaling. This study will take a geographically widespread species and examine its’ phylogenetic history and then proceed to examine the behavior and the role of multimodal signaling, allowing me to delve even deeper into the potential genes underlying the changes that are driving and maintaining this amazing diversity.
Comparative Phylogeography of Indonesian Passerine Avifauna
The biodiversity found among the islands of Indonesia is truly spectacular and a primary research interest of mine. Particulary, I focus on birds ranging from the edge of the Sunda shelf spannig across Wallacea all the way to the edge of the Sahul shelf. Little work as of recent has been conducted on the phylogenetic relationships between birds species among the many hundreds of islands throughout the region. With work done by Dr. Jim McGuire and PhD student Sean Riley I wish to combine their extensive work on amphibians and reptiles in this region with my work on birds. With a combined set of unique taxa we will be able to build a more complete picture of phylogeographic past of this diverse and fascinating region.
Lord of the Dance: Relatedness among Leking Male Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruviana)
Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruviana) are known for their gaudy displays that take place on steep slopes of the Andes of South America. During these displays many males will gather together at sunrise and bow, flap, and squawk at each other in order to attract a female and hopefullly mate. These aggregations of overly excited males are known as leks. Within one lek I have observed that males seem to form three to four aggregations that I informally call dance troupes. Amoung all dance troupes females only seem to visit one dance toupe and then wihtin the toupe all females only mate with one male. I am interested in how these conngreations are organized, how females select the best male, how the males decide which dance troupe they get to be in, and how males are related accross a lek. This work has been conduced with collaborator Dr. Dusti Becker at Reserva Las Tangaras, just outside Mindo, Ecuador.
Aru Islands Conservation ProjectI'm another title
As previously mentioned Indoneisa is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Unfortanelty the Australasian tropics are also disappearing at a much faster rate than both the Neotropics (South America) and the Afrotropics (African tropics). Furthermore we are still discovering new species at a rapid rate in this region, even larg mammals. One of the more diverse set of islands are the Aru Islands. Unfortunately the Aru Islands are currently slated to become a 500,000 hectare sugar cane plantation. This is akin to us paving over all of the Galapagos Islands. Except the Galapagos are desert islands and the Aru Islands are covered in lush, and incredibly biodiverse rainforests. This year, the 100th anniversary of Alfred Russel Wallace's death, we stand poised to lose one of greatest remaining pieces of lowland rainforest in the Malay Archipelago, where he formulated his theory of evolution. It is clear that this area has only begun to be explored biologically, with many new species remaining to be found. It's larger than some US states and home to multiple indigenous groups (who weren't asked what they thought about the plan). Currently me and a small team are preparing to bring this issue to the global community and will require a lot of support and help. This is a classic issue of essentially infinte wealth vs a small impoverished community currently being ignored by the international community. Join me and my team to help stop this from happening by signing this petition: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Save_Aru_Islands_from_Deforestation_Exploitation/?eMTgBfb
And see our website for more details: TBA