Projects
Metals, oxidative stress and carotenoid-dependent coloration: does metal pollution fade the colour of great tits (Parus major)? University of Antwerp
Adaptive maternal investment in relation ot environmental variation in teh Great Tit (Parus major) Ghent University
Through controlled field experiments in a population of the Great Tit (Parus major) residing in the proximity of the city of Ghent, (i) the effect of food availability and pathogeny of the environment on maternal investment in egg yolk immune factors and sex-allocation, and (ii) the consequences of differential maternal investment on the offspring's fitness will be examined.
Short and long term effects of light pollution on the great tit (Parus major) and the effectiveness of mitigating strategies. University of Antwerp
Short and long term effects of light pollution on the great tit (Parus major) and the effectiveness of mitigating strategies. University of Antwerp
An integrated study on the effects of long term exposure to artificial light at night in free-living great tits (Parus major) and on the effectiveness of mitigating strategies. University of Antwerp
The eco-evolutionary consequences of reward-based learning for behavioural variation. Ghent University
In recent years it has become clear that most animals have the ability to learn and that this often plays an important role in how individuals adjust their behaviours throughout their lives. Yet, how learning ultimately contributes to behavioural variation within populations is still poorly known. This project investigates the functioning and consequences of reward-based learning – a simple and universal mechanism by which individuals adapt ...
Understanding species’ invasions: a mechanistic view on the invasion success of the common waxbill, a prolific avian invader. Ghent University
Invasive species are among the main global threats to biodiversity, economy and human well-being. Preventing their introduction is paramount but requires being able to reliably predict invasion risks. Currently, forecasts of where introduced species can invade strongly rely on extrapolating native-range realized niche characteristics onto new areas. Frequent mismatches between predicted and actual invasive occurrences however raise concern ...
Mechanistic underpinnings of bird distribution ranges: temperature tolerance and energetic constraints Ghent University
Global change is causing a redistribution of biodiversity worldwide. Humans continue to introduce species to areas far beyond their natural geographical ranges while changing climates force organisms to adapt, or to shift in location to stay within preferred environmental conditions. Understanding what underlies species’ geographical distributions is a longstanding question in ecology and evolution, given new impetus by the conservation ...
A central role for the fungal quorum sensing molecule tryptophol during the early stages of a Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection? Ghent University
Chytridiomycosis is a fungal skin disease that causes declines and extinctions in amphibians on a
global scale. B. dendrobatidis is one of the infectious agents and although the negative impact of
this pathogen on global diversity has been widely documented, the fundamentals of the hostpathogen
interactions are still underexplored. The early interactions of B. dendrobatidis are
described as attachment to (adhesion) and ...