Dr Martin Stevens

Tel: +44 (0 )1223 768 946
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 336 676
Email: ms726 at cam.ac.uk

Position held: BBSRC David Phillips Fellow, and Fellow of Churchill College

In January 2013 my group and I will be moving to the Centre for Ecology and Conservation
at the Cornwall Campus of Exeter University.
 
Applications are open until 11 January to apply for a PhD position on predator vision and insect
warning signal diversity at CEC: see http://www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=1071.
Please get in contact if you require any details.
 


New textbook out in early 2013: Sensory Ecology, Behaviour & Evolution
Key Research Interests
 
Sensory ecology and behaviour, especially vision and adaptive coloration. My work combines empirical and theoretical work in the lab and field.
 
Opportunities
 
Potential PhD students and post-docs are welcome to contact me, and suggestions regarding areas of work or projects are encouraged. These should normally be related to my key interests, but other ideas are welcome. Undergraduates looking for summer project work can contact me about possibilities.
 
 

New book out now
 
Research
 

I am interested in a range of subjects, but most notably adaptive coloration and vision. This work encompasses areas of animal behaviour, including anti-predator coloration, mate choice, brood parasitism, and methods to study vision and visual signals. My work makes links with aspects of experimental psychology and computer vision.

My PhD students and I work on a range of subject areas. At present,

  • Alexandra Török is a BBSRC funded student working on the functional and mechanistic basis of startle and flash displays in animals as anti-predator defences
  • Lina Maria Arenas is studying aposematism and mate choice in UK and Colombian ladybirds
  • Kate Marshall is a BBSRC funded student working on camouflage and communication in island populations of lizards
  • Anna Hughes is a BBSRC-CASE funded student, co-supervised with David Tolhurst and based in Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, working on the psychophysics of motion dazzle markings in animals in preventing capture from predators.


1. Anti-predator coloration: This work focuses on how an animal may optimise its camouflage in various habitats, how eyespots, startle, and warning displays can prevent attack, and the visual mechanisms involved in these defensive strategies. Research involves fieldwork, comparative analyses and computer modelling and simulations. I collaborate with various researchers, including: Graeme Ruxton (Glasgow; anti-predator coloration and behaviour), Sami Merilaita (Åbo Akademi; optimal camouflage), Johanna Mappes (Jyväskylä; warning coloration and polymorphism).
 

 
2. Brood parasitism: I am interested in the visual signals involved in avian brood parasitism. I am investigating (with Nick Davies, Cassie Stoddard) exactly what visual attributes are most important in successful egg mimicry by common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) to prevent rejection by hosts. With Claire Spottiswoode, I am studying brood parasitism in cuckoo finches (Anomalospiza imberbis) and their hosts, which have remarkably polymorphic eggs within species (see photo at right).
 
3. Bird vision & methods to study visual signals: My work on adaptive coloration is underpinned by trying to understand the visual mechanisms involved. The model receivers I am most interested in are birds, and I use and produce models analysing visual signals from a bird’s visual perspective. I am also interested in developing techniques, including digital image analysis, to analyse complex, two dimensional signals, both in terms of pattern and colour.
 
   
Editing  
   
I have (with Sami Merilaita) Guest Edited an issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B, on ‘Animal Camouflage: Current Issues and New Perspectives’ (February 2009, Volume 364), and guest edited a special issue of Current Zoology on ‘Sensory Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior’ (May 2010, Volume 56). Sami Merilaita and I recently published an edited book on ‘Animal Camouflage: Mechanisms and Function’ with Cambridge University Press (2011).  
   
Funding  
   
My work has been/is funded by the BBSRC, the Royal Society, Girton College, and for undergraduate projects by the Nuffield Foundation, British Ecological Society, Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, and the Department of Zoology.  
Research History
 
I did both my BSc (Zoology) and PhD at the University of Bristol, before moving to Cambridge as a Research Fellow at Girton College.
 
Miscellaneous
 
I regularly referee manuscripts from over 15 different international journals, have given a range of seminars in Europe and North America, and my work has received a range of media coverage (see publications). I also recently organised (with David Tolhurst; Physiology) an Applied Vision Association conference on Animal Camouflage.
 
Selected Publications (click here for a complete list)
 
  • Spottiswoode, C. N. & Stevens, M. (2012) Host-parasite arms races and rapid changes in bird egg appearance. American Naturalist (in press)
  • Stevens, M. & Ruxton, G.D. 2011. Linking the evolution and form of warning coloration in nature. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.1932
  • Stevens, M., Searle, W.T.L., Seymour, J.E., Marshall, K.M. & Ruxton, G.D. 2011. Motion dazzle and camouflage as distinct anti-predator defenses. BMC Biology. 9:81. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-9-81
  • Spottiswoode, C.N. & Stevens, M. 2011. How to evade a coevolving brood parasite: egg discrimination versus egg variability as host defences. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.0401
  • Higham, J.P., Hughes, K.D., Brent, L.J.N., Dubuc, C., Engelhardt, A., Heistermann, M., Maestriperi, D., Santos, L.R. & Stevens, M. 2011. Familiarity affects the assessment of female facial signals of fertility by free-ranging male rhesus macaques. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.0052
  • Stoddard, M.C. & Stevens, M. 2011. Avian vision and the evolution of egg color mimicry in the common cuckoo. Evolution, 65: 2004-2013.
  • Langmore, N.E., Stevens, M., Maurer, G., Heinsohn, R., Hall, M.L., Peters, A., & Kilner, R.M. 2011. Visual mimicry of host nestlings by cuckoos. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 278: 2455-2463.
  • Spottiswoode, C.N. & Stevens, M. 2010. Visual modeling shows that avian host parents use multiple visual cues in rejecting parasitic eggs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107: 8672-8676.
  • Stoddard, M.C. & Stevens, M. 2010. Pattern mimicry of host eggs by the common cuckoo, as seen through a bird's eye. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 277: 1387–1393.
  • Stevens, M. & Merilaita, S. 2009. Animal camouflage: current issues and new perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B. 364: 423-427.
  • Stevens, M., Yule, D.H. & Ruxton, G.D. 2008. Dazzle coloration and prey movement. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 275: 2639–2643.
  • Stevens, M., Hardman, C.J., & Stubbins, C.L. 2008. Conspicuousness, not eye mimicry, makes ‘eyespots’ effective anti-predator signals. Behavioral Ecology. 19: 525–531.
  • Stevens, M. & Cuthill, I.C. 2006. Disruptive coloration, crypsis and edge detection in early visual processing. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 273: 2141-2147.
  • Cuthill, I.C., Stevens, M., Sheppard, J, Maddocks, T, Párraga, C. A. & Troscianko, T. 2005. Disruptive coloration and background pattern matching. Nature. 434: 72-74.

 
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, U. K.