Dr Mic Pierotti
School of Science, Engineering & Environment
Current positions
Lecturer
Biography
In 2002, I obtained my BSc/MSc in Biological Sciences at the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy, with a (published) dissertation on sexual selection and sperm competition strategies in the invasive Western mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki.
I then moved to the University of Hull to work with Ole Seehausen and Russ Lande on assortative mating in a group of East African lakes cichlid species with W-linkage of colour patterns and the unusual coexistence of X, Y and W sex chromosomes within a single population. After Ole’s move to the University of Bern and EAWAG-ETH in Luzern, I completed my PhD in Switzerland.
I then took up a 3 ys postdoctoral research fellowship at East Carolina University in the USA, working with Jeff McKinnon on female ornamentation in three-spine sticklebacks and mate choice in Lake Matano sailfin silversides. This gave me the opportunity for field work in British Columbia and California (sticks) and in the mind-blowingly beautiful island of Sulawesi (silversides). Towards the end of my fellowship, I was hired as a fixed-term teaching professor at ECU.
An Ernst Mayr fellowship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama (STRI) to work on a project I proposed on aggressive mimicry in the colour polymorphic hamlet fish radiation, was followed by a 3-year Smithsonian Institution Virginia Purdy Bacon Fellowship again at STRI, where I developed a large, interdisciplinary project studying visual adaptations to different oceanographic conditions (Caribbean vs East Pacific) of multiple pairs of sister species, separated by the 3 MY old emergence of the Isthmus of Panama.
While most of my work in Panama dealt with coral reef fishes, I did end up falling in love with tropical forests and, in particular, with communication and vision in neotropical frogs. This new interest eventually brought me to the University of Sao Paulo as a FAPESP visiting scientist, studying the visual system of various amphibians and reptiles.
In 2023, I joined the University of Salford as a teaching fellow and, since late 2024, I am a lecturer in Biodiversity Science.
Areas of Research
Evolutionary biology, marine biology, visual communication, colour vision, sexual selection, genetic conflict, speciation.
I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in the study of adaptation and the origin and maintenance of biodiversity in natural populations. My research integrates evolutionary ecology, underwater optics, animal behaviour, eco-physiology and genomics to examine the role of environmental change in shaping the evolutionary trajectory of populations towards speciation and how functional diversity is generated in tropical ecosystems.
My main research systems are aquatic vertebrates, but more recently I expanded my work to the evolutionary ecology and genomics of Neotropical amphibians and reptiles.
Studying colour polymorphisms in the context of species divergence has brought me to explore the physiological mechanisms (and underlying genetic basis) mediating conspicuous signals and their perception. I have studied the spectral sensitivity of vertebrate retinas and the transcriptomic signature of colour vision in Nicaraguan crater lake cichlids, coral reef fishes and amphibians.
In collaboration with Professor Ellis Loew at Cornell University, I use state-of-the-art retina micro-spectrophotometry allowing the direct measurement of spectral sensitivity within individual cones and rods in the retina. Transcriptomics matching these physiology assays across related species with diverging ecologies provides me with an evolutionary perspective on the genetic underpinnings of visual tuning and communication, in the contexts of predator avoidance, foraging, mimicry, sexual selection, species recognition.
Ongoing projects explore the mechanisms of local adaptation by natural and sexual selection and the origin and maintenance of aquatic biodiversity, through behavioural observations in the wild, field experimental manipulations, retina micro-spectrophotometry, genomics and transcriptomics, image analysis.
I am currently module leader for Coastal Management and Practical Ecology & Conservation.
I also contribute to the modules: Molecular Genetics, Field Biology, Fisheries Science, Ocean Challenges, Introduction to Marine Biology, Marine Biotechnology, Applied Aquatic Sciences, Global Conservation Challenges, Animal Physiology, Biological Principles, Earth Processes, and Tropical Ecology and Conservation (including a 2-week residential field trip in Uganda).
Qualifications
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Evolutionary Biology
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Biological Sciences (Behavioural Ecology) - Laurea quinquennale (BSc + MSc equiv)