Faculty Directory

- Title
- Full Professor
- Division Physical & Biological Sciences
- Department
- Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department
- Affiliations Computer Science and Engineering Department
- Phone 831-459-4022, 831-459-3425
- Website
- Office Location
- CSC Coastal Biology Building, 270
- Lizardland
- Office Hours M W 10-11 am
- Mail Stop CBB/EE Biology
- Mailing Address
- 1156 High Street
- Santa Cruz CA 95064
- Faculty Areas of Expertise Climate Change, Game Theory, Behavioral Ecology, Endangered Species, Big Data, Bioinformatics, Cognition, Evolution, Conservation, Digital Arts
- Courses Taught Behavioral Ecology, Bio 141; Herpetology, Bio 114/L; Game Theory, Bio 272,; Behavioral Ecology, Bio 140; Behavioral Ecology Field Course, Bio 141L
Summary of Expertise
Game Theory, Behavioral Ecology, Mating Systems, Behavioral Genetics, Climate Change Impacts on Organisms
Research Interests
Behavioral Ecology, Natural and Sexual Selection on Reproduction, Behavior, Reptilian Communities, Speciation
Barry Sinervo, Full Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz, is an evolutionary biologist who conducts research on Behavioral Ecology, Game Theory and the Biotic Impacts of Climate Change. He received his HBSc from Dalhousie University with a double major in Mathematics and Biology, PhD from the Zoology Department, University of Washington, and was a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Early in his career he discovered the first biological example of the rock-paper-scissors game, played out in nature by the side-blotched lizard. He is co-author with Dan Friedman of a book (Feb., 2016) entitled: “Evolutionary Games in Natural, Social and Virtual Worlds”. He is currently researching contemporary extinctions of reptiles and amphibians and changes in plant communities driven by climate change, at sites distributed on five continents, leading a multinational research team of scientists developing physiological models of the biotic impacts of climate change on diverse biological systems, and measuring the biotic impacts of climate from equatorial sites to polar regions. He gives workshops on climate change science at institutions around the world. He is also Director of the UC-wide Institute for the Study of the Ecological and Evolutionary Climate Impacts, a research consortium funded by a UC Presidential Research Catalyst Award, studying biotic impacts of climate change across the UC Natural Reserve System of California.
Our research is focused on behavioral and physiological ecology. For example, we have described a biological example of a cyclical "rock-paper-scissors" game that is being "played" out among three color morphs of male side-blotched lizards in the Coast Range of California. As in the "rock-paper-scissors" game where paper beats rock, and scissors beats paper, and rock beats scissors; the wide-ranging, "ultra-dominant" strategy of orange males is defeated by the "sneaker" strategy of yellow males which is in turn defeated by the mate-guarding strategy of blue males which is in turn defeated by the orange strategy to complete the cycle. We are currently using DNA paternity analysis to measure success of each color morph under different morph frequencies. The game leads to interesting aspects of cooperation in the blue strategy. We are focusing on the evolution of cooperation, and how this might drive the speciation process.
Questions relating to the physiological ecology of females are addressed by assessing the trade-off between offspring quality and quantity. I have developed two complementary manipulations, egg miniaturization and gigantization, that allow me to experimentally address the physiological bases of egg and clutch size variation as well as its fitness consequences. Current research addresses effects of egg size on dispersal, territory establishment and reproductive success in male and female offspring. Because egg and clutch size also affect the future reproductive success of the female parent, we can also experimentally manipulate such "costs of reproduction" by altering clutch size in the female parent.
Although much of my work focuses on the microevolutionary changes in behavior and physiology of lizards, I am also interested in the evolution of development in marine and freshwater organisms with larval stages (e.g., sea urchins and amphibians). I am also interested in other macroevolutionary problems of evolutionary biology that involve speciation. Our recent work is related to socially mediated speciation rather than ecologtically mediated speciation, which is typically considered in speciation studies.
Biography, Education and Training
Ph.D., University of Washington, 1988
Postdoctorals: Miller Research Fellow University of California, Berkeley
Research Associate, University of Washington
Honors, Awards and Grants
2018 Visiting Professor, University of Pau, France
2018 Visiting Professor, University of Toulouse, France
2016 International Collaboration Award, Chinese Herpetological Society
2015-2019 Presidential Research Catalyst Award to build an UC-wide Climate Change Institute
2013-2017 Special Visiting Professor, CNPq, University of Brasilia, Brazil (hosted by G. Colli)
2013 Awarded Best Paper in Copeia, (co-recipients with A. Corl & L. Lancaster)
2012 The Patagonian lizard Phymaturus sinervoi, a newly described species, was named in my honor
2010 Professor of Toulouse, UniversitéPaul Sabatier - Toulouse III (3 months summer)
2008 Research Scientist, CNRS (Centre Nationale pour les Recherche Scientifique) Moulis (4 months)
2007 Professor of Toulouse, UniversitéPaul Sabatier - Toulouse III (3 months summer)
2004 Visiting Professor, Natural History Museum, Paris (3 months summer)
2004 Awarded Best Paper in The American Naturalist, (co-recipients with R.B. Huey & P.E. Hertz).
2003 Visiting Professor, Paris University (2 months summer)
2001 CNRS Summer Professorship, CNRS, Paris (3 months summer)
2000 Elected Member, California Academy of Sciences
1992 Dobzhansky Prize, Society for the Study of Evolution
1989 American Society of Naturalist Young Investigator Prize
1988-1990 Miller Research Fellow, Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, UC Berkeley.
1982-1986 1967 Science Scholar, Natural Sciences Engineering and Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
1982 Commonwealth Scholarship to study in Essex with Brian Charlesworth and John Maynard Smith, which I declined
Annual Fund Fellowship, University of Washington
University Medal in Biology, Dalhousie University
Graduated with First Class Honours, HBSc. in Combined Biology and Mathematics Degree, Dalhousie University
1981 G.S. Burke Scholarship in Biology, Dalhousie University
1980-1982 Undergraduate Research Awards (3 awards), NSERC
1978-1981 Scholarships in Biology (4 scholarships awarded), Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia