Samantha Waller
Position: PhD graduate (completed December 2005)
Education: 2000 BSc (Hons) University of Bristol, England
Awards and Grants:
Research Interests: Coral reef ecology, colour of animals, vision
Education: 2000 BSc (Hons) University of Bristol, England
Awards and Grants:
- International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) and University of Queensland International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (UQIPRS) (2002-2005).
- Grant from the Joyce W. Vickery Scientific Research Fund, Linnean Society of New South Wales (2003).
- Micro-grant from PADI Project AWARE Asia-Pacific (2004).
- Special Commendation for poster presentation at the Australian Neuroscience Society conference (2004).
- Student Travel Awards to the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour conference (2003 and 2004) and the Australian Neuroscience Society conference (2004)
Research Interests: Coral reef ecology, colour of animals, vision
Sami, Uli & Lexa.
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Sam at Lizard Island
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Filming behavioural experiments
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Research Project: Before coming to the University of Queensland, I undertook expeditions to Belize with Coral Cay Conservation (1998) and Indonesia with Operation Wallacea (2000). I also gained my PADI Divemaster and semi-closed rebreather qualifications. My PhD supervisors at UQ were Prof. Justin Marshall (VTHRC), Dr. Lexa Grutter, and Dr. Uli Siebeck.
Honours Project: "The effect of different wavelengths and polarisation of light on social interactions in guppies"
PhD project: "The role of ontogenetic colour change in social interactions in reef fish"
It has been hypothesised that the striking ontogenetic colour changes often displayed by reef fish function as intraspecific camouflage allowing juveniles to go unrecognised as competitors by territorial adults. I tested this hypothesis using behavioural experiments with two species of damselfish (Pomacentrus amboinensis and Neoglyphidodon melas). As studies of animal colour and vision have been confounded by the traditional assumption that animals view the world the same as humans, the colour vision systems of these species were investigated using retinal anatomy and microspectrophotometry, allowing the colour vision capabilities of the juvenile and adult damselfish to be related to the observed behavioural output.
Conference Abstracts:
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2003). The possible role of ontogenetic colour change as intraspecific camouflage in damselfish. Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2003). Ontogenetic colour change and the role of the ocellus in damselfish (Pomacentridae): Does it function as intraspecific camouflage? Proceedings of the annual conference of the Australian Marine Sciences Association.
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2004). Ontogenetic colour change and the development of the visual system in a damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis (Pomacentridae). Proceedings of the Australian Neuroscience Society 15 : 137.
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2004). Ontogenetic colour change in the damselfish Pomacentrus amboinensis : Does the ocellus function as intraspecific camouflage? Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Honours Project: "The effect of different wavelengths and polarisation of light on social interactions in guppies"
PhD project: "The role of ontogenetic colour change in social interactions in reef fish"
It has been hypothesised that the striking ontogenetic colour changes often displayed by reef fish function as intraspecific camouflage allowing juveniles to go unrecognised as competitors by territorial adults. I tested this hypothesis using behavioural experiments with two species of damselfish (Pomacentrus amboinensis and Neoglyphidodon melas). As studies of animal colour and vision have been confounded by the traditional assumption that animals view the world the same as humans, the colour vision systems of these species were investigated using retinal anatomy and microspectrophotometry, allowing the colour vision capabilities of the juvenile and adult damselfish to be related to the observed behavioural output.
Conference Abstracts:
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2003). The possible role of ontogenetic colour change as intraspecific camouflage in damselfish. Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2003). Ontogenetic colour change and the role of the ocellus in damselfish (Pomacentridae): Does it function as intraspecific camouflage? Proceedings of the annual conference of the Australian Marine Sciences Association.
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2004). Ontogenetic colour change and the development of the visual system in a damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis (Pomacentridae). Proceedings of the Australian Neuroscience Society 15 : 137.
Waller, S. J., Siebeck, U. E. and Marshall, N. J. (2004). Ontogenetic colour change in the damselfish Pomacentrus amboinensis : Does the ocellus function as intraspecific camouflage? Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour.