Jordan S. Martin
@jsmartin.bsky.social
Evolutionary biologist, behavioral ecologist, data scientist. Postdoc @ Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag.
Interested in individual differences, phenotypic plasticity, and the interaction between social, ecological, and evolutionary dynamics.
Interested in individual differences, phenotypic plasticity, and the interaction between social, ecological, and evolutionary dynamics.
Pinned
Jordan S. Martin
@jsmartin.bsky.social
· Jul 30
Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society
Social effects on fertility promote population growth and the evolution of flexible cooperation in a small-scale human society.
www.science.org
I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
New paper out now in Ecology & Evolution:
"Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms:
A general framework for labile traits"
Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
"Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms:
A general framework for labile traits"
Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Estimating (Non)Linear Selection on Reaction Norms: A General Framework for Labile Traits
It remains difficult to empirically estimate nonlinear selection on individual reaction norms, inhibiting robust tests of adaptive theory and accurate predictions of phenotypic evolution for labile t...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:02 PM
New paper out now in Ecology & Evolution:
"Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms:
A general framework for labile traits"
Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
"Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms:
A general framework for labile traits"
Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
Myself and Alastair Wilson wrote an updated version of our 2016 primer to quantitative genetics in the wild: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Happy to share a copy if interested. It is also on research gate
Quantitative Genetics in Natural Populations
Phenotypes evolve under natural selection if, and only if, they are genetically variable. While evolutionary ecologists have long studied natural sele…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 21, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Myself and Alastair Wilson wrote an updated version of our 2016 primer to quantitative genetics in the wild: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Happy to share a copy if interested. It is also on research gate
New paper out now in Evolution, co-led with Dave Westneat!
Using long-term data on house sparrows, we find that quantity-quality tradeoffs near a local fitness ridge favor more or less canalized clutch size distributions in response to environmental variability.
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Using long-term data on house sparrows, we find that quantity-quality tradeoffs near a local fitness ridge favor more or less canalized clutch size distributions in response to environmental variability.
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Measuring selection on reaction norms: Lack’s principle and plasticity in clutch size
We applied a novel multivariate analysis to measure linear and nonlinear selection on components of a complex reaction norm that was expected to be shaped
academic.oup.com
October 13, 2025 at 11:51 AM
New paper out now in Evolution, co-led with Dave Westneat!
Using long-term data on house sparrows, we find that quantity-quality tradeoffs near a local fitness ridge favor more or less canalized clutch size distributions in response to environmental variability.
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Using long-term data on house sparrows, we find that quantity-quality tradeoffs near a local fitness ridge favor more or less canalized clutch size distributions in response to environmental variability.
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!
August 22, 2025 at 1:32 PM
With #eseb2025 coming to a close, it is time to start making plans for 2026. Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Come to our #ExE conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall. Leave your email address at tinyurl.com/EvolxEcol to join our mailing list!
A landmark paper for the evolutionary biology of behavior. Fascinating work on how manipulating cell type-specific gene expression can rewire the brain to produce a key mating behavior observed in a sister species that diverged ~35 mya.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cross-species implementation of an innate courtship behavior by manipulation of the sex-determinant gene
In accepting a courting male, Drosophila subobscura females require nuptial gift giving in which a male gives regurgitated crop contents to her mouth to mouth. No similar behavior is found in D. melan...
www.science.org
August 20, 2025 at 8:09 PM
A landmark paper for the evolutionary biology of behavior. Fascinating work on how manipulating cell type-specific gene expression can rewire the brain to produce a key mating behavior observed in a sister species that diverged ~35 mya.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
My first solo author paper is now available in early view at Methods in Ecology and Evolution! I develop a covariance reaction norm (CRN) model for estimating continuous, multivariate, and nonlinear environmental effects on G and P matrices.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Covariance reaction norms: A flexible method for estimating complex environmental effects on trait (co)variances
Estimating quantitative genetic and phenotypic (co)variances is crucial for investigating evolutionary ecological phenomena such as developmental integration, life history trade-offs and niche spe...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 11, 2025 at 1:25 PM
My first solo author paper is now available in early view at Methods in Ecology and Evolution! I develop a covariance reaction norm (CRN) model for estimating continuous, multivariate, and nonlinear environmental effects on G and P matrices.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
Hot on the tail of our Tsimane IGE study comes the theory paper that motivated it! What are the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social plasticity in dynamic environments? See our new Functional Ecology paper to find out more
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Frequency dependence favours social plasticity and facilitates socio‐eco‐evolutionary feedback in fluctuating environments
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 7, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Hot on the tail of our Tsimane IGE study comes the theory paper that motivated it! What are the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social plasticity in dynamic environments? See our new Functional Ecology paper to find out more
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Hot on the tail of our Tsimane IGE study comes the theory paper that motivated it! What are the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social plasticity in dynamic environments? See our new Functional Ecology paper to find out more
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Frequency dependence favours social plasticity and facilitates socio‐eco‐evolutionary feedback in fluctuating environments
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 7, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Hot on the tail of our Tsimane IGE study comes the theory paper that motivated it! What are the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of social plasticity in dynamic environments? See our new Functional Ecology paper to find out more
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society
Social effects on fertility promote population growth and the evolution of flexible cooperation in a small-scale human society.
www.science.org
July 30, 2025 at 7:41 PM
I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society
Social effects on fertility promote population growth and the evolution of flexible cooperation in a small-scale human society.
www.science.org
July 30, 2025 at 7:41 PM
I'm very excited to share the central paper from my PhD out now in Science Advances. We investigated how social effects among neighbors shape the evolution of reproductive cooperation and the pace of adaptive population growth among the Indigenous Tsimane of Bolivia.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
@barbaraclass.bsky.social et al. assess how well different statistical models estimate indirect genetic effects and assortative mating when partner similarity is caused by multiple co-occurring processes
@jsmartin.bsky.social @mmoiron.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
@jsmartin.bsky.social @mmoiron.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Disentangling nonrandom assortment, indirect effects, and joint plasticity as causes of phenotypic (dis)similarity between social partners
Abstract. Social partners frequently resemble each other. These correlations between the phenotypes of interacting individuals (e.g., social partners, grou
academic.oup.com
July 2, 2025 at 9:54 AM
@barbaraclass.bsky.social et al. assess how well different statistical models estimate indirect genetic effects and assortative mating when partner similarity is caused by multiple co-occurring processes
@jsmartin.bsky.social @mmoiron.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
@jsmartin.bsky.social @mmoiron.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Nothing quite lifts your spirits like having R2 thank you for giving them the chance to read "an insightful piece of work" that they "really liked". Thanks to you, anonymous colleague, for a little sunshine on this overcast day 🌻
December 16, 2024 at 5:45 PM
Nothing quite lifts your spirits like having R2 thank you for giving them the chance to read "an insightful piece of work" that they "really liked". Thanks to you, anonymous colleague, for a little sunshine on this overcast day 🌻
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
Four years ago we showed that only 27% of articles published in ecological journals WITH a code-sharing policy made their code available, leading to a 21% reproducibility potential.
📰 doi.org/10.1371/jour...
We've looked into journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy.
Results coming soon...
📰 doi.org/10.1371/jour...
We've looked into journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy.
Results coming soon...
December 9, 2024 at 8:17 AM
Four years ago we showed that only 27% of articles published in ecological journals WITH a code-sharing policy made their code available, leading to a 21% reproducibility potential.
📰 doi.org/10.1371/jour...
We've looked into journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy.
Results coming soon...
📰 doi.org/10.1371/jour...
We've looked into journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy.
Results coming soon...
One of the most fascinating papers of the year...
"...infanticide occurred in multiple contexts due to multiple drivers. Nevertheless, 48% of stepparents of both sexes adopted offspring, and another 23% of stepfathers exhibited both infanticide and long-term care."
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"...infanticide occurred in multiple contexts due to multiple drivers. Nevertheless, 48% of stepparents of both sexes adopted offspring, and another 23% of stepfathers exhibited both infanticide and long-term care."
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Eviction-driven infanticide and sexually selected adoption and infanticide in a neotropical parrot | PNAS
Infanticide and adoption have been attributed to sexual selection, where an individual
later reproduces with the parent whose offspring it killed o...
www.pnas.org
December 9, 2024 at 12:26 PM
One of the most fascinating papers of the year...
"...infanticide occurred in multiple contexts due to multiple drivers. Nevertheless, 48% of stepparents of both sexes adopted offspring, and another 23% of stepfathers exhibited both infanticide and long-term care."
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"...infanticide occurred in multiple contexts due to multiple drivers. Nevertheless, 48% of stepparents of both sexes adopted offspring, and another 23% of stepfathers exhibited both infanticide and long-term care."
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
To get this new social media account going, I'm sharing a little celebration: our 2019 animal empathy review got its 100th citation today 🥳. This work represents the bulk of my research: investigating empirical evidence of "human uniqueness" in animals, with a firm grip on its theoretical foundation
December 2, 2024 at 1:55 PM
To get this new social media account going, I'm sharing a little celebration: our 2019 animal empathy review got its 100th citation today 🥳. This work represents the bulk of my research: investigating empirical evidence of "human uniqueness" in animals, with a firm grip on its theoretical foundation
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
We had heard about the challenges posed by motherhood within academia, but what about the previous stage? @ecfreewoman.bsky.social & I wrote our story for @science.org on how the academic system makes it almost impossible for women to even plan for a family ❤️🩹: www.science.org/content/arti...
As women in academia, having children can feel impossible. Talking about it makes us feel less alone
The struggle is “balancing their careers not just with motherhood, but with what comes before: relationships and planning for a family,” these postdocs write
www.science.org
November 29, 2024 at 6:34 AM
We had heard about the challenges posed by motherhood within academia, but what about the previous stage? @ecfreewoman.bsky.social & I wrote our story for @science.org on how the academic system makes it almost impossible for women to even plan for a family ❤️🩹: www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Jordan S. Martin
Four years ago, Psychological Science published a paper which used a ludicrously poor quality dataset. That paper was retracted, partly in order to avoid “prolonging the use” of the data but the dataset still thrives in the academic literature. Read our article & 🧵 for examples
Journals that published Richard Lynn's racist 'research' articles should retract them
Richard Lynn's work has been repeatedly condemned for using flawed methodology and deceptively collated data to support racism. It's past time to retract the studies.
www.statnews.com
June 26, 2024 at 5:55 PM
Four years ago, Psychological Science published a paper which used a ludicrously poor quality dataset. That paper was retracted, partly in order to avoid “prolonging the use” of the data but the dataset still thrives in the academic literature. Read our article & 🧵 for examples
Our updated EcoEvoRxiv preprint "Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms: A general framework for labile traits" is now live. Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
November 26, 2024 at 11:26 AM
Our updated EcoEvoRxiv preprint "Estimating (non)linear selection on reaction norms: A general framework for labile traits" is now live. Work done in collaboration with Yimen Araya-Ajoy, Niels Dingemanse, @ali--wilson.bsky.social, and David Westneat. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
When and why does social plasticity evolve, and what are its consequences for the pace of phenotypic evolution in fluctuating environments? Check out our new preprint where we use evolutionary quantitative genetic theory to develop general answers to these questions. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
November 15, 2024 at 2:24 PM
When and why does social plasticity evolve, and what are its consequences for the pace of phenotypic evolution in fluctuating environments? Check out our new preprint where we use evolutionary quantitative genetic theory to develop general answers to these questions. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Are you interested in understanding plasticity and GxE in multivariate traits across complex environments? If so, please check out my new EcoEvoRxiv preprint where I propose "covariance reaction norm" models for detecting and quantifying these processes. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
November 22, 2023 at 5:48 PM
Are you interested in understanding plasticity and GxE in multivariate traits across complex environments? If so, please check out my new EcoEvoRxiv preprint where I propose "covariance reaction norm" models for detecting and quantifying these processes. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...