Michael Morrissey

Dr. Michael Morrissey is a Reader (equivalent to Associate Professor) in the School of Biology at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on evolutionary quantitative genetics, particularly the analysis of longitudinal data from pedigreed populations in natural settings. He maintains an active research program with numerous recent publications and ongoing projects.

Research Interests

Dr. Morrissey specializes in evolutionary statistical quantitative genetics, with a focus on analyzing longitudinal data from unmanipulated animal populations. His work leverages individual-based longitudinal data from pedigreed populations to understand how evolution operates in natural environments. He has a particular interest in the selection and genetics of traits in Soay sheep from St Kilda and other long-term animal datasets from around the world.

His research encompasses evolutionary genetic theory, using analytical and computational approaches to understand expected patterns of genetic variation in nature. He's particularly interested in patterns generated by complex landscape arrangements, especially dendritic systems in freshwater environments. Recently, he's been working on interpreting relationships between phenotypic traits and fitness using 'chains of causation' to characterize natural selection.

Publications Trend

Dr. Morrissey's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on evolutionary quantitative genetics, with significant contributions to statistical methods for analyzing natural selection. His work spans diverse taxa including Arctic charr, lake trout, and Soay sheep, examining growth rates, genetic diversity, and evolutionary adaptation. He has developed important R packages like pedantics and gsg for pedigree manipulation and selection gradient analysis.

Research Funding

• Current Project: 'Is Phenology Evolving In Response To Climate Change?' (NERC, 2023-2026)
• Recent Project: 'Using whole-ecosystem experimental manipulations to study environmental determinants of natural selection in the wild' (The Royal Society, 2021-2023)
• Previous Project: 'Resolving the paradox of stasis: addressing the missing fraction problem' (2018-2022)

Software Development

Dr. Morrissey has developed important statistical tools for empirical microevolutionary studies, including the R packages pedantics (for pedigree manipulation) and gsg (for inference of selection gradients). These tools help bridge fundamental evolutionary genetic theory with real-world field data.