WaspClim used fieldwork in Cameroon and South Africa, collecting behavioural, morphological, mass spectrometry, and genomics data, in collaboration with Professor Maurice Tindo (University of Douala), Dr Paul Serge Masse (University of Yaounde 1), Professor Christian Park (University of Pretoria), and Dr Quentin Guignard (University of Pretoria). The project conducted experiments and genetic sampling across multiple populations, including Congo Basin forests and semi-arid habitats, replicating methods in parallel across climates. Work in South Africa centred on the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve, with the generous support of Gerry Comninos and local landowners and farmers.
The MSCA outgoing phase was in New York, in Professor Dustin Rubenstein's lab at Columbia University. Work in New York involved genomic library preparation and specimen dissection, as well as theoretical modelling and the collation of interspecific data, and teaching on Columbia's 3-week field course in savanna ecology in Kenya. As a Junior Fellow of the Simons Society of Fellows (a society of scientists in New York), the MSCA fellow also benefitted from regular meetings with colleagues across diverse fields from astrophysics to neuroscience.
The return phase was in Bristol, in the lab of Professor Andrew Radford at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol. Work at Bristol involved developing a detailed individual-based simulation for the evolution of cooperation in Belonogaster and similar organisms across climatic gradients, continued fieldwork in Cameroon, and bioinformatics analysis of the fieldwork data. The simulation modelling (using the high-performance computing facilities of Bristol's Advanced Computing Research Centre) focused on developing a biologically realistic model, comprising spatially-explicit and sex-biased dispersal, haplodiploid inheritance, condition-dependence, and strategic choices by individual wasps.
The main results achieved so far include: (1) setting up field sites and strong collaborations across a very large latitudinal gradient, which will form the basis for an ambitious programme of ongoing work on Africa's social wasps; (2) effective outreach in evolution and ecology to diverse communities across four countries; and (3) clarifying in detail the climatic factors shaping wasp demography, through field experiment, population genetics, and biologically-realistic evolutionary simulations, results which will be available to the scientific community through forthcoming papers. This work has highlighted the foundational importance of kin selection, whilst documenting how demographic factors can shape relatedness and social opportunity for individual actors.
The project has involved outreach and engagement. This included talks for eco-guard trainees in Cameroon, students in Yaounde, local farmers and landowners in Magaliesberg, and high school teachers in New York City. Moreover, the project sought to provide strong training opportunities for field assistants; as a result of WaspClim, one field assistant from Cameroon is now conducting a Commonwealth Scholarship PhD on Belonogaster wasps in the UK, for which the MSCA fellow is a cosupervisor.
