Sam Flaxman

Assistant Professor

samuel.flaxman@colorado.edu
303-249-3119
Flaxman Lab Website

Ph.D., Cornell University, 2006

Research Interests

Research in my lab combines theoretical and empirical approaches in a variety of projects that investigate the evolutionary ecology of competition and conflict. The majority of my research explores predator-prey interactions in the context of habitat selection (i.e., small scale spatial distributions and real-time interactions of organisms). This research uses a combination of analytic modeling (in collaboration with Yuan Lou, Department of Mathematics, Ohio State University), simulation modeling, and empirical investigations of a tritrophic system. The latter are conducted with fava bean plants, pea aphids, and lady beetles in experimental microcosms. The other projects I am currently working on are (1) an evolutionary simulation model of food web assembly and (2) exploring the adaptive significance of morning sickness in human pregnancy. I am currently seeking graduate students to join my lab; please contact me if you are interested.

Recent Publications

Flaxman SM, Lou Y. 2009. Tracking prey or tracking the prey’s resource? Mechanisms of movement and optimal habitat selection by predators. Journal of Theoretical Biology, In press, DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.09.024.

Brennan BJ, Flaxman SM, Alonzo S. 2008. Female alternative reproductive behaviors: the effect of group size on mate assessment and copying. Journal of Theoretical Biology 253:561-569. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.04.003.

Flaxman SM, Sherman PW. 2008. Morning sickness: adaptive cause or non-adaptive consequence of embryo viability? American Naturalist 172:54-62. DOI: 10.1086/588081.

Safran RJ, Doerr VAJ, Sherman PW, Doerr ED, Flaxman SM, Winkler DW. 2007. Group breeding in vertebrates: linking individual and population-level approaches. Evolutionary Ecology Research 9:1163-1185.

Flaxman SM, deRoos CA. 2007. Different modes of resource variation provide a critical test of ideal free distribution models. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 61: 877–886. DOI: 10.1007/s00265-006-0316-8.

Flaxman SM, Reeve HK. 2006. Putting competition strategies into ideal free distribution models: habitat selection as a tug of war. Journal of Theoretical Biology 243: 587-593. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.07.012.

Flaxman SM, Sherman PW. 2000. Morning sickness: a mechanism for protecting mother and embryo. Quarterly Review of Biology 75:113-148.