In this thesis, I tried to understand the patterns and processes of vegetation trends at different spatial scales and resolution. The spatial variability in vegetation trends was related to inter and intra-annual changes ...

In mixed-species bird flocks (flocks hereafter), participants vary in their degree of similarity with each other. Flock participants can gain group size (supplementary) benefits by choosing similar flock partners, or ...

Competition between individuals of the same sex, intrasexual competition, has received much attention in males, mainly because such competition, which is primarily for mates (i.e. sexual selection), often selects for ...

Cooperation is ubiquitous across taxa in the animal kingdom. For example, microbes cooperate in producing antibiotic-resistant biofilms, mammals and birds collectively mob predators, and humans cooperate in utilization of ...

A focus in evolutionary biology is to understand the drivers of diversity in animal behavioural traits in the living world. Animals facing similar problems in the environment, such as the problem of how much to invest in ...

Multiple traits, including antipredator responses, foraging behaviour, development rate and fecundity, contribute towards an organism’s fitness. These diverse traits interact through shared resources allocated to maximise ...