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Research GELIFES BPE

Behavioural & Physiological Ecology

Coordinator: Simon Verhulst

The Behavioural & Physiological Ecology group aims to understand behaviour of animals in their natural environment. Studies range from molecular to population level, and are empirical as well as theoretical. We integrate approaches to address questions on both function and mechanism of behaviour. Topics of specific interest are social behaviour, ecological immunology, the avian microbiome and life history evolution including ageing, and for most of these topics we are primarily interested in trying to understand individual variation. With respect to study systems, there is an emphasis on birds and we run long-term studies on larks, Seychelles warblers, blue tits, (captive) zebra finches, jackdaws and starlings. Please consult the web pages of the PIs below for further details.

Maurine Dietz
Dietz group
Ecophysiology
Hannah Dugdale
Dugdale group
Evolutionary medicine
Jan Komdeur
Komdeur group
Evolutionary ecology
Irene Tieleman
Tieleman group
Animal ecology
Simon Verhulst
Verhulst group
Evolutionary biology of ageing
MSc research projects

The list of projects on this page is by no means complete, and only intended to give an indication of the possibilities.