Evolution of breeding system diversity

Plovers are a group of shorebirds with a particular high diversity of mating and care behaviour. Mating and care behaviour are often not independent of each other, together they form the breeding system. In some species both parents care jointly for the offspring whilst in others either parent may abandon the brood and start a new family with a different partner, leaving it’s previous to look after the young alone. During our current research we work on identifying ecological, evolutionary and genetic determinants of this variation in mating and care behaviour.