Research
Ecological phenomena are often based on individual behavioral decisions that have proven to be evolutionarily successful. For example, the habitat choice of many individuals determines the resulting population density. Behavioral ecology examines how behaviors have evolved as a result of evolution. Behavioral traits (which in behavioral ecology also include characteristics such as plumage coloration or the timing of breeding) are mostly genetically determined, but they do show a degree of phenotypic plasticity. Their purpose is to enable the individual to achieve comparatively high biological fitness in its environment. In other words, the animals that exhibited this behavior over the course of evolution left behind relatively more offspring, and that is why we can observe the behavior today. The optimal behavior for each individual can depend on many characteristics, such as food availability, its own condition, or whether it is infected with parasites.
Research Focus
Wild populations of long-lived birds and their responses to changes in marine and terrestrial ecosystems, including: responses to historical and recent changes in climate and land use; foraging and diet, using direct methods as well as non-invasive methods; molecular ecology and speciation; behavioral ecology: focus on parental investment; response to variable environmental conditions: field endocrinology and immunology.
Research Topics
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Species distributions and behavioral flexibility
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Migration and distribution patterns
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Species conservation – an integrative approach |  |
Birds as hosts of blood parasites |
Study sites
We collaborate with a number of colleagues from academic and conservation institutions both in Germany and internationally, e.g. Mexico, Spain, UK, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, France, Belgium, and USA.
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Subantarctic |
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California Current, Mexico |
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Antarctica |
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Russian Arctic |
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Patagonia |
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Germany – Europe |
Methods
The methods used include, among others:
- Monitoring of breeding success and parental investment
- Various data logger applications (GPS, dive data analysis, geolocation)
- Diet analyses, including the use of stable isotopes
- Molecular methods for sex and parentage determination
- VHF radio tracking
- Sound analysis (bioacoustics)
- Color analysis (especially spectrometry)
- Field immunological methods
- Spatial analyses (GIS)
- Multivariate statistics