I am interested in how individuals respond to changing
environments and
how the behaviors of individuals shape the dynamics of ecological and
evolutionary systems. I am now primarily studying how prey behavior in
response to predation risk affects community dynamics, and how prey and
predators distribute themselves across space in response to each other.
In the past, I primarily studied how females should gather and use
information when making mate choice decisions and I remain interested
in the topic. I use empirical studies and mathematical and
computational models to investigate these questions.
Luttbeg, B. and J. L. Kerby.
2006. Are scared prey as good as dead? Trends in Ecology
and Evolution. 20:416-418.
Luttbeg B. and A. Sih. 2004.
Predator and prey habitat selection games: the
effects of how prey balance foraging and predation risk.
Israel Journal
of Zoology, 50:233-254. (invited compendium
on predation risk)
Luttbeg, B. 2004. Female
mate assessment and choice behavior affect the frequency
of alternative male mating tactics. Behavioral Ecology
15: 239–247.
Luttbeg, B. and T. Langen. 2004. Comparing
Alternative Models to Empirical Data: Cognitive Models
of Western Scrub-Jay Foraging Behavior. American Naturalist
163: 263-276.
Luttbeg, B., L. Rowe, and M. Mangel.
2003. Prey state and experimental design affect relative
size of trait- and density-mediated indirect effects.
Ecology 84:1140-1150.
Luttbeg, B. 2002. Assessing the robustness
and optimality of alternative decision rules with varying
assumptions. Animal Behaviour 63: 805–814.
Luttbeg, B., Towner, M. C., Wandesforde-Smith,
A., Mangel, M. & Foster, S. A. 2001: State- dependent
mate-assessment and mate-selection behavior in female
threespine sticklebacks (Gasteros- teus aculeatus, Gasterosteiformes:
Gasterosteidae). Ethology 107, 545-558.
Luttbeg, B. and O. Schmitz. 2000. Predator
and Prey Models with Flexible Individual Behavior and
Imperfect Information. 155: 669-683.