Dr Anne Winters

About me:

I am an evolutionary and behavioural ecologist interested in anti-predator defences. I am particularly interested in aposematism, which is a defence strategy that relies on communication to signal unprofitability to predators. I focus on how variable signals are maintained through selection pressures acting on the system.

I currently hold a Marie Skodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship “MOVAC: maintenance of variation in aposematic colouration” to investigate intraspecific variation in the aposematic, polymorphic nudibranch, Polycera quadrilineata.

From 2019-2020 I worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Predator Prey Interactions group at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, where I focused on intraspecific and geographic variation in sequestered chemical defences, how multiple defence compounds interact to dissuade predators, and the efficacy of colour, smell, and taste in disrupting different stages of the predation sequence.

My PhD “Understanding Colour and Chemical Diversity in Nudibranchs” was in the Visual Ecology group at the University of Queensland, Australia.

12006 – 2010 BSc (with honours) Environmental Biology, University of Southern Mississippi, USA

2010 – 2011 MSc in Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology, University of Exeter, UK

2012 – 2016 PhD in Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia