Pilakouta Lab
predicting responses to climate change
from molecules to populations and ecosystems
about the lab
Our research group, led by Dr Natalie Pilakouta, is based in the Centre for Biological Diversity at University of St Andrews. The overarching aim of our work is to improve our ability to predict population responses to human-induced environmental changes and, in particular, climate change. We are also interested in linking these population responses to the underlying molecular mechanisms and their effects on ecosystem-level processes.
Working towards this goal, our research integrates behavioural ecology, evolutionary biology, and ecophysiology, using a wide range of methods, such as experimental evolution, field-based studies, and molecular biology techniques. We work mainly on fish and insect study systems, but our work is question-driven rather than species-driven. We also use meta-analytic techniques to answer questions with a broad taxonomic scope. If you are interested in joining the lab, click here for more information and any open positions.
news
February 2026 ― Solene visited Prof Sandra Steiger's lab at the University of Bayreuth in Germany for a new collaborative project — stay tuned for some really exciting results!
February 2026 ― New paper in Journal of Thermal Biology showing that larvae exposed to thermal stress suffer higher mortality, but there are no long-term effects on reproduction later in life — congrats to Jakob on the first paper from his PhD!
January 2026 ― New paper in Biology Letters on sex-specific effects of thermal stress on fertility — congratulations to Izzy on her first first-authored paper!
December 2025 ― Congrats to Solene and Izzy who have received travel grants to visit the labs of Prof Sandra Steiger (University of Bayreuth, Germany) and Matty Berg (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands), respectively
November 2025 ― Hot off the press! Check out our editorial on "Linking the causes and consequences of phenotypic plasticity" for our special issue in Functional Ecology (co-edited with Dr Isabel Smallegange)
November 2025 ― We are advertising several PhD positions in our lab - check the Join Us page for more details!
October 2025 ― New paper in Functional Ecology on ShareTrait, a novel initiative that consolidates individual-level trait data and associated metadata in an interoperable and reusable format, enabling standardised and integrated use
September 2025 ― Congratulations to Izzy and Solene who have been awarded fully funded PhD studentships to continue working in our lab and will be starting their PhD projects this autumn!