My fields of study include evolutionary biology, population genetics, behavioral ecology, herpetology, and ornithology. I am particularly interested in questions pertaining to speciation, sexual selection, adaptation, and the maintenance of polymorphism. I am currently working on two major projects in the Nielsen lab. First, I am investigating the genetic basis of a mating strategy polymorphism found in the side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana. Side-blotched lizards can exhibit three distinct male mating types within a population, which differ in behavior, coloration, and hormone levels. The mating types are maintained by a biological version of a rock-paper-scissors game, wherein each strategy can beat one other mating type, but is vulnerable to remaining mating type. Understanding the genetic basis of these mating types will allow us to better understand the evolution of this fascinating system and could help reveal how genes modulate behavior. The second project that I am working on is studying how natural selection shapes phenotypes when the traits exhibit phenotypic plasticity. This work is being done on population of side-blotched lizards that lives on a black lava flow and where the lizards are black in coloration. Our work has revealed that the coloration of these lizards is due to both phenotypic plasticity and in the adaptation of two different genes that regulate the production of melanin.