Ultimately, I hope the method will aid in better understanding how quantitative G x E is shaping multivariate trait evolution in response to dynamic social and ecological change (socio-eco-evo) on contemporary timescales.

I also demonstrate the utility of the CRN using an exceptional long-term dataset on meerkat behavior from work by @tomhouslay.bsky.social et al. (big thanks to Tom!) The CRN shows how specialization among cooperative tasks changes plastically in response to sex, age, dominance, and group size.

I use simulations to show that the CRN is not only a valid model for inferring complex environmental effects, but also that it can outperform standard methods at modest sample size in more idealized scenarios with a single environmental effect (climate warming).

There are great methods for estimating environmental effects on trait (co)variances, but their utility is limited for investigations of complex environmental effects in the field, esp. when repeated measurements and/or experimental breeding designs are unfeasible. The CRN answers this challenge.

While G and P can be highly stable under certain conditions, there are many cases where trait (co)variances are expected to rapidly respond to continuous environmental change across space and time. Explaining the dynamics of trait development and evolution requires understanding these relationships.

We also show that the local consequences of IGEs fluctuate across neighborhoods and communities in response to socioecological factors. This suggests that plasticity in reproductive cooperation is also being maintained by spatiotemporal variation in neighbors' effects on one another's fertility.

Results demonstrate that social effects on fertility promote the evolution of reproductive cooperation, while also playing an outsized role in determining the evolvability of individual fitness. In comparison to direct effects alone, IGEs are predicted to increase the pace of adaptation by 5x.

To test key predictions from the model, we combined cutting-edge Bayesian methods with the largest demographic dataset available on a contemporary foraging-oriented society, to analyze genetic effects on fertility variation among Tsimane women and their neighbors over a 20y period.

We combine evolutionary anthropological and quantitative genetic theory to propose a novel social drive hypothesis, which predicts that indirect (i.e. social) genetic effects (IGEs) on fitness play a key role in explaining our species' rapid social evolution and biodemographic success.

Our updated EcoEvoRxiv preprint "Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms: A general framework for labile traits" is now live. Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

When and why does social plasticity evolve, and what are its consequences for the pace of phenotypic evolution in fluctuating environments? Check out our new preprint where we use evolutionary quantitative genetic theory to develop general answers to these questions. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Are you interested in understanding plasticity and GxE in multivariate traits across complex environments? If so, please check out my new EcoEvoRxiv preprint where I propose "covariance reaction norm" models for detecting and quantifying these processes. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...