Christophe Pelabon

Biography

I am teaching various courses at the institute of biology at NTNU: in evolutionary biology (BI 2017 and BI 3083) ; in quantitative methods and experimental design in ecology and evolution (BI 3051 and BI 3052).

Research Interest

Evolution results from the interplay between selection and the ability of organisms to evolve and adapt, that is, their Evolvability. Until recently, however, selection has been considered the main dynamical force explaining variation in micro- and macroevolution. The aim of my research activity is to understand how much evolvability of complex characters, measured by their level of genetic variance, affects their evolution at both micro- and macroevolutionary time scales. I use both experimental studies on different model organisms and comparative/meta-analyses to study evolvability. A large part of the experiments we are currently conducting is done on the Neotropical vine Dalechampia scandens at the greenhouse from the institute.