Dr. Dario Josi

About me

I am a behavioural ecologist fascinated by how environmental heterogeneity influences social and mating systems, dispersal patterns, life-histories, and species distribution. My main study systems are highly social fishes from Lake Tanganyika and, more recently, freshwater fishes from perialpine Lakes and associated river systems. I am currently a researcher at the Wyss Academy for Nature, which is affiliated with the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern. Here I am working on an interdisciplinary project involving scientists, government agencies and NGOs. The goal of the project is to identify and implement data-driven conservation strategies for freshwater ecosystems that take into account both climate change and human impacts.

Publications

Google Scholar

Josi D., Flury J.M., Reyes-Contreras M., Tanaka H., Taborsky M. & Frommen J.G. (2021) Sex-specific routes to independent breeding in a polygynous cooperative breeder. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9: 750483   https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.750483

Josi D., Heg D., Takeyama T., Bonfils D., Konovalov D.A., Frommen J.G., Kohda M. & Taborsky M. (2021) Relatedness, social structure and helping behaviour in the cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus savoryi. Evolution 75: 2881-2897 https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14348

Josi D. & Frommen J.G. (2021) Through a glass darkly? Reactions of eight lamprologine cichlid species towards their mirror image in their natural environment. Ethology 127: 925-933 https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13207

Freudiger A., Josi D., Thünken T., Herder F., Flury J.M., Marques D., Taborsky M. & Frommen J.G. (2021) Ecological variation drives morphological differentiation in a highly social vertebrate. Functional Ecology 35: 2266-2281 https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13857

Josi D., Freudiger A., Taborsky M. & Frommen J.G. (2020) Experimental predator intrusions in a cooperative breeder reveal task partitioning of group members. Behavioral Ecology 31: 1369-1378 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araa094

Josi D., Taborsky M. & Frommen J.G. (2020) Investment of group members is contingent on helper number and the presence of young in a cooperative breeder. Animal Behaviour 160: 35-42 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.11.013

Josi D., Taborsky M. & Frommen J.G. (2019) First field evidence for alloparental egg care in cooperatively breeding fish. Ethology 125: 164-169 https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12838

Josi D., Taborsky M. & Frommen J.G. (2018) Habitat preferences depend on substrate quality in a cooperative breeder. Evolutionary Ecology Research 19: 517-527 (pdf)

Groenewoud F., Frommen J.G., Josi D., Tanaka H., Jungwirth A. and Taborsky M. (2016) Predation risk drives social complexity in cooperative breeders. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 113: 4104-4019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524178113

Jungwirth A., Josi D., Walker J. & Taborsky M. (2015): Benefits of coloniality: communal defence saves anti-predator effort in cooperative breeders. Functional Ecology 29: 1218-1224 https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12430