Gender bender: The impact of endocrine disrupting pollutants on sexual selection

Environmental pollutants that mimic or block the effect of hormones pose a serious threat to wildlife and humans. I aim to provide pivotal insights into the impact of these pollutants on reproductive behaviours and sexual selection in a freshwater fish. I will uncover how the pollutants affect the efficacy of sexual signals and how this, in turn, can influence the strength of selection. Morphological and behavioural experiments will be combined with a longitudinal study to reveal whether effects persist across generations. My findings will have repercussions for understanding an important mechanism of evolution, with consequences for population and species persistence.