Can sexual selection improve population fitness?
For an overview of how sexual selection can improve the mean fitness of populations, check out my blog on the Evolution Letters Editors’ blog – Does sexual selection help or hinder population performance?
Sexual selection is often considered to work in opposition to natural selection due to the cost of maintaining sexually-selected signals. However, genic capture theory states that mating success, especially in the face of competition, is ultimately determined by condition, and therefore shaped by a large number of naturally selected genes.
Sexual selection may therefore augment natural selection by improving the purging of deleterious mutations and the fixation of beneficial ones, creating population-level fitness benefits.
I test this idea using experimentally evolved populations of 
the promiscuous flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, which differ only in their contrasting opportunities for male-male competition and female choice across 50-100 generations of selection.
Publications:
Godwin, J.L., Spurgin L.G., Michalczyk, L., Martin, O.Y., Lumley, A.J., Chapman T.C. & Gage, M.J.G. (2018). Lineages evolved under stronger sexual selection show superior ability to invade conspecific competitor populations. Evolution Letters (early view).
Godwin, J.L., Vasudeva, R., Michalczyk, L., Martin, O.Y., Lumley, A.J., Chapman T.C. & Gage, M.J.G. (2017). Sperm competition intensity selects for longer, more costly sperm. Evolution Letters, 1, 102-113.
Godwin, J.L. (2016). Consequences of sexual selection for reproductive and life history traits in Tribolium castaneum.
ZSL Thomas Henry Huxley Award and Marsh Prize – commendation
Lumley, A.J., Michalczyk, L., Kitson, J.J.N., Spurgin, L.G., Morrison, C.A., Godwin, J.L., Dickinson, M.E., Martin, O.Y., Emerson, B.C., Chapman T.C. & Gage, M.J.G. (2015). Sexual selection protects against extinction. Nature 522, 470-473.
Presentations, Posters & Outreach:
Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Winter 2017 – Sexual selection: Do we still need to test the alternatives?
Talk title: Does sexual selection improve population fitness?
European Society for Evolutionary Biology XVI Congress 2017
– Groningen, The Netherlands
Talk title: Does sexual selection improve population fitness?
Soapbox Science 2017 – ‘Sex-ual Selection in the City’
“If a flour beetle egg was the size of a rugby ball how long would a sperm cell be?”
Read more about my experience and reasons for getting involved on the UEA BIO Equality and Diversity blog: Soapbox Science: shouting for women in STEMM
Annual UEA Centre for Ecology, Evolution & Conservation ‘Rebellion’ conference 2017
Talk title: Does sexual selection improve population fitness?
UCL, Centre for Ecology & Evolution Summer Symposium 2016 – War & Peace – the dynamics of evolutionary conflict
Poster title: Sexual selection increases sperm competitiveness and sperm length – silver poster prize
Take a look at the UEA CEEC science news and events blog for a simple summary of my paper about sperm competition and sperm length evolution ‘Sperm size matters’.
UEA Centre for Ecology Evolution & Conservation ‘Rebellion’ 2016 Talk title: Sperm competition selects for directional not stabilising selection on sperm length – best student talk prize
Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Easter Meeting 2015 and
UEA Centre for Ecology Evolution & Conservation ‘Rebellion’ 2015
Talk title: How does sexual selection shape sperm competitiveness and ability to invade new populations?
Career History: 
- Postdoc, University of East Anglia (2016-Present)
- PhD Evolutionary Biology, University of East Anglia (2016)
- Senior Education Officer, Norfolk Wildlife Trust (2011-12)
- Teacher of Science, Sprowston High School, Norwich (2010-2011)
- MSc Ecology & Conservation, University of East Anglia (2010)
- Field Studies Teacher, Holt Hall Field Studies Centre (2006-09)
- Teacher of Science, Abbeyfield School, Chippenham (2005-06)
- PGCE Secondary Science, University of Bath (2004)
- BSc Biology, University of Bath (2003)
Contact – [email protected] | @joannelgodwin
