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Academic Staff - Dr Ashley Ward

Position: Associate Professor
Phone: +61 2 9351 4778
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Email: ashley.ward@sydney.edu.au
Location: Room 132, A12 - Macleay Building, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia
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Areas of Interest

A major focus of my work over the last few years has been the social behaviour of animals, particularly fishes. I’m currently working on a diverse range of research questions, including the following:

  • Should social animals, such as fish, lemmings or even humans, blindly follow their leaders, or should they risk isolation from the group by acting more independently? The decision about whether to follow the lead of another individual constitutes a fundamental problem for grouping animals. Research currently being conducted examines questions about leaders, followers and the dynamics of group decision making, particularly involving fish and social crustaceans.
  • Fish are capable of recognising and differentiating between their conspecifics. In freshwater fishes, social recognition is known to be achieved using a combination of different sensory cues though recent findings suggest that chemical cues may be of greatest importance. The chemical cues produced by individuals are strongly influenced by both local habitat use and diet, allowing fish to distinguish between members of their local population. It is this ability that underpins their social organisation into shoals, territorial assemblages and dominance hierarchies.
  • The vast majority of studies on fish behaviour have focussed on freshwater fishes. Comparatively little work has been done on marine fishes, especially temperate species. As a result, there are some major gaps in our knowledge of the social organisation of marine fish communities, especially in terms of how they recognise and communicate with one another ­– their sensory biology – and how this may be affected by exposure to anthropogenic contaminants.
  • Physiology is the driver of animal behaviour and by combining behavioural and physiological approaches to research questions, we can gain fascinating insights into what makes animals ‘tick’. For example, how do animal respond to stress? What determines fighting ability? Why do individuals vary in their willingness to accept risk in order to gain rewards, thereby occupying different positions on the so-called ‘bold-shy continuum’? These and many other areas of behavioural ecology can benefit hugely from the adoption of a multi-disciplinary research perspective.

I would encourage any potential Honours or PhD students interested in behavioural ecology questions, especially those using fish as models, to contact me.

Research Output

Peer-reviewed journal publications

2010
  • Jordan, L.A., Avolio, C., Herbert-Read, J.E., Krause, J., Rubenstein, D.I. & Ward, A.J.W. (in press) The effects of joiner preference and resident behaviour on the group dynamics of a coral reef fish. Behavioural Ecology & Sociobiology
  • Herbert-Read, J.E., Logendran, D. & Ward, A.J.W. (in press) Sensory ecology in a changing world: Salinity alters communication in an amphidromous fish, Pseudomugil signifier. Behavioural Ecology & Sociobiology
  • Ward, A.J.W., Hensor, E.M.A., Webster, M.M. & Hart, P.J.B. (in press) Behavioural thermoregulation in two freshwater fish species. Journal of Fish Biology
  • Reid, A.L., Seebacher, F. & Ward A.J.W. (2010) Learning to hunt: the role of experience in predator success. Behaviour 147 223-233.
  • Wilson, A.D.M., Godin, J-G.J, & Ward A.J.W. (2010) Boldness and reproductive fitness correlates in the Eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki. Ethology 116 96-104.
2009
  • Ward, A.J.W., Webster, M.M., Magurran, A.E., Currie, S., & Krause, J. (2009) Species and population differences in social recognition between fishes: a role for ecology? Behavioural Ecology 20 511-516.
  • Webster, M.M., Ward, A.J.W. & Hart, P.J.B. (2009) Individual boldness affects interspecific interactions. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 63 511-520.
2008
  • Sumpter, D.J.T., Krause, J. Cousin, I.D., James, R., Ward A.J.W. (2008) Consensus decision-making by fish. Current Biology 18 1773-1777.
  • Chapman, B.B., Ward, A.J.W. & Krause J (2008) Schooling and learning: early social environment predicts social learning ability in the guppy Poecilia reticulate. Animal Behaviour 76 923-929
  • Ward, A.J.W., Sumpter, D.J.T., Couzin, I.D., Hart, P.J.B. & Krause, J. (2008) Quorum decision-making facilitates information transfer in fish shoals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105 6948-6953
  • Ward, A.J.W., Duff, A.J. Horsfall, J.S. & Currie, S. (2008) Scents and scents-ability: Pollution disrupts chemical social recognition and shoaling in fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 275 101-105
  • Webster, M.M., Ward, A.J.W. & Hart, P.J.B. (2008) Shoal and prey patch choice by co-occurring fish and prawns: inter-taxa use of socially transmitted cues. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 275 203-208
2007
  • Webster, M.M., Atton, N, Ward, A.J.W. & Hart, P.J.B. (2007) Turbidity and foraging rate in threespine sticklebacks: the importance of visual and chemical prey cues. Behaviour 144 1347-1360
  • Webster, M.M., Goldsmith, J., Ward, A.J.W. & Hart, P.J.B. (2007) Habitat specific chemical cues influence association preferences and shoal cohesion in fish. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 62 273-280
  • Webster, M.M., Ward, A.J.W. & Hart, P.J.B. (2007) Boldness is influenced by social context in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Behaviour 144 351-371
  • Ward, A.J.W., Webster, M.M. & Hart, P.J.B. (2007) Social recognition in wild fish populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274 1071-1077.
2000 - 2006
  • Ward, A.J.W., Webster, M.M., Hart, P.J.B. (2006) Intraspecific food competition in fish. Fish & Fisheries 7 231-261.
  • Wright, D., Ward, A.J.W., Croft, D.P. & Krause, J. (2006) Social organisation, grouping and domestication in fish. Zebrafish 3 141-155.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Duff, A.J. & Currie, S. (2006) The effects of a common environmental pollutant, 4-nonylphenol, on the behaviour of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 63 377-382.
  • Krause, J., Ward, A.J.W., Jackson, A., Ruxton, G.D., James, R. & Currie, S. (2005) The influence of differential swimming speeds on composition of multi-species fish shoals. Journal of Fish Biology 67 866-872.
  • Coolen, I., Ward, A.J.W., Hart, P.J.B. & Laland, K.N.. (2005) Foraging nine-spined sticklebacks prefer to rely on public information over simpler social cues. Behavioural Ecology 16 865-870.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Holbrook, R.I., Krause, J & Hart, P.J.B. (2005) Social recognition in sticklebacks: The role of direct experience and habitat cues. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 57 575-583.
  • Croft, D.P., James, R., Ward, A.J.W., M. S. Botham, D. Mawdsley & Krause, J. (2005) The structure of social networks and association patterns in fish. Oecologia 143 211-219.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Duff, A.J., Krause, J. & Barber, I. (2005) Shoaling behaviour of sticklebacks infected with a microsporidian parasite. Environmental Biology of Fishes 72 155-160.
  • Ward, A.J.W. & Hart, P.J.B. (2005) Foraging benefits of shoaling with familiars may be exploited by outsiders. Animal Behaviour 69 329-335.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Hart, P.J.B. & Krause, J. (2004) Assessment and assortment: how fishes use local and global cues to choose which school to go to. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B Biology Letters 271 S328-S330
  • Ward, A.J.W., Thomas, P., Hart, P.J.B. & Krause, J. (2004) Correlates of boldness in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 55 561-568.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Hart, P.J.B. & Krause, J. (2004) The effects of habitat- and diet-based cues on association preferences in three-spined sticklebacks. Behavioral Ecology 15 925-929.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Axford, S. & Krause, J. (2003) Cross-species familiarity in shoaling fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 270 1157-1161.
  • Ward, A.J.W. & Hart, P.J.B. (2003) The effects of kin and familiarity on interactions between fish. Fish & Fisheries 4 348-358.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Botham, M.S., Hoare, D.J., James, R., Broom, M., Godin, J.-G.J. & Krause, J. (2002) Association patterns and shoal fidelity in the three-spined stickleback. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269 2451-2455.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Axford, S. & Krause, J. (2002) Mixed-species shoaling in fish: the sensory mechanisms and costs of shoal choice. Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology 52 182-187.
  • Ward, A.J.W., Hoare, D.J., Couzin, I.D., Broom, M. & Krause, J. (2002) The effects of parasitism and body length on positioning within wild fish shoals. Journal of Animal Ecology 71 10-14.
  • Hoare, D.J., Ward, A.J.W., Couzin, I.D., Croft, D.P. & Krause, J. (2001) A grid-net technique for the analysis of fish positions within free-ranging shoals. Journal of Fish Biology 59 1667-1672.
  • Ward, A.J.W. & Krause, J. (2001) Body length assortative shoaling in the European minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus. Animal Behaviour 62 617-621.
  • Krause, J., Hoare, D.J., Croft, D., Lawrence, J., Ward, A.J.W., Ruxton, G.D., Godin, J-G.J. & James, R. (2000) Fish shoal composition: mechanisms and constraints. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 267 2011-2017.

Invited Book Chapters

  • Griffiths, S.W. & Ward, A.J.W. (2006) Learned recognition of conspecifics. In: Fish Cognition & Behavior (Edited by Culum Brown, Kevin Laland & Jens Krause). Chapman & Hall, Oxford.
  • Hart, P.J.B., Webster, M.M. & Ward, A.J.W. (in press) Foraging strategies in fish. In: Fish Behaviour (Eds: Magnhagen, C., Braithwaite, V., Forsgren, E. & Kapoor, B.G.). Science Publisher, Inc., Enfield, USA.
  • Krause, J., Ward, A.J.W., Croft, D.P. & James, R. (in press) Group living and social networks. In: Fish Behaviour (Eds: Magnhagen, C., Braithwaite, V., Forsgren, E. & Kapoor, B.G.). Science Publisher, Inc., Enfield, USA.

Popular Science Books

  • Ward, A.J.W. (2008) Questions and Answers: Saltwater Aquarium Fishes, TFH Publications, New Jersey. ISBN 0793806623.
  • Ward, A.J.W. (2007) Questions and Answers: Freshwater Aquarium Fishes, TFH Publications, New Jersey. ISBN 0793806216.