Dr Lexa Grutter

PhD (James Cook University)
Position: Senior Lecturer

Room: 112 Goddard Building 8
Phone: +61 7 3365 7386
Email: a.grutter@uq.edu.au
Web: http://www.lexagrutter.com/

Research Interests

My research interests are in coral reef ecology. I am especially interested in how fish and parasites interact on coral reefs and how they affect each other's behaviour, ecology, and evolution. This work has expanded to investigating the role of parasites in larval fish biology, the ecology of blood parasites of reef fish, the role of sunscreens in fish mucus, and the evolution of cleaning mutualisms. I use field observations to generate hypotheses which are tested using field and laboratory experiments.

Currently, I have research programmes at Heron Island and Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef and on campus.

Specific projects include:

• Cleaning symbiosis as a model system for developing and testing models of non-kin cooperation in multispecies mutualisms

• Identity, source, and ecological role of sunscreens in fish mucus

• The role of parasites in larval coral reef fish ecology

• Ecology of blood parasites of coral reef fish

• Cleaner shrimp behaviour and ecology

Selected Publications

Grutter, A.S. (1999). “Cleaner fish really do clean”, Nature 398:672-673

Grutter, A.S. and Irving A.D. (2007) Positive interactions in marine ecology. In: Marine Ecology, edited by Connell, SD & Gillanders, BM. Oxford University Press. Pp. 110-137.

Cheney KL, Grutter AS, Blomberg SP, Marshall NJ (2009) Blue and yellow signal cleaning behaviour in coral reef fishes. Current Biology 19: 1283-1287.

Grutter A.S., Cribb, TH, McCallum H., Pickering, J., McCormick, M.I. (2010) Effects of parasites on larval and juvenile stages of a coral reef fish. Coral Reefs 29: 31-40.

Raihani, N.J., Grutter A.S., Bshary R. (2010) Punishers benefit from third-party punishment in fish. Science. 327: 171.

Professional Associations

· International Society for Coral Reef Studies
· American Society for Parasitology
· Australian Coral Reef Society
· Australian Society for Parasitology
· Australian Marine Sciences Association

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