My research aims to understand the causes and consequences of individual variation in behaviour, physiology and life history. To answer these questions, me and the people in my group use methods from behavioural ecology & evolution as well as endocrinological and molecular (epi-)genetic methods. Studying individual differences in physiology and behaviour, its plasticity and flexibility enables us to understand how individuals, populations and species cope with and adapt to changes in their environment.

For students: If you are interested in an internship or a PhD position, please contact me

Adjusting to human-altered environments

The literature agrees that urbanisation, the shift from rural to urban areas, is one of the most sever threads for wildlife and biodiversity on the planet. This is mainly because it presents novel and unpredictable challenges for species to cope with. Some species seem to flourish in urban habitats, the so-called urban dwellers. These species are hypothesised to possess traits that enable their success. The nature of these traits, i.e., whether they are life history, physiological or behavioural traits, is not yet well-understood. Additionally, the mechanisms shaping these traits within and across generations, are not yet well-known.

One cornerstone of my research focuses on characterising traits that enable successful animals to thrive in novel and or/ human-altered environments. One such trait is innovative problem-solving, basically when individuals create novel behaviours or use existing behaviours in novel contexts.

We have shown that urban mice are better problem-solvers than field mice and that house mice evolved better problem-solving skills when they started to live commensally with humans. Currently, we investigate in several projects:

      1)    Who are the innovators and what makes them so innovative?

      2)    How is problem-solving affected by the environment, by natural and sexual selection?

      3)    Which aspects of the urban habitat facilitate problem-solving?

Early life influences & phenotypic development

Non-genetic influences of the (grand)- parental phenotype contribute strongly to the early environmental experience, and such inter- and transgenerational (epigenetic) effects may even resemble heritable (genetic) effects. Non-genetic inheritance patterns may allow adaptive adjustment of the offspring phenotype to the prevailing environment or allow for phenotypic adjustments to environmental change much faster than evolutionary mechanisms.

One line of my previous and ongoing research therefore focusses on investigating how phenotypic plasticity allows animals to adjust either flexibly (via developmental plasticity) or across few generations (via transgenerational plasticity) to predictable and unpredictably varying environments. Using combinations of observations under natural or semi-natural conditions and experimental manipulations of the early environment or internal states, I ask:

     1)    How a change in environment, e.g., nutrition, social density or temperature, affect phenotypic development within and across generations

       2)    If there are negative effects on fitness when adjusting to a changed environment

       3)    How hormones drive the adjustment to changed environments

Allocation decisions in seasonally varying environments

Rapid global environmental changes can lead to unpredictable abiotic and biotic conditions, affecting especially animals that reproduce seasonally. The most immediate adaptive mechanism allowing populations to face these changes occurs at the individual level through phenotypic plasticity. The ability to adjust plastically in allocating resources into reproduction versus maintenance and associated physiological flexibility, however, differs between species. The primary objectives of my work are to understand how flexibility in seasonal breeding decisions and physiological/behavioural flexibility help or hinder small mammals to adjust to fast-changing environments.

Nutrition, water, and temperature are the ultimate drivers of seasonal rhythms, such as seasonal reproduction. Nevertheless, plants and animals have evolved remarkably similar mechanisms to use day length (photo‐period) as a proximate cue for predicting the occurrence of these ultimate factors, and photoperiod is usually regarded as a predictable environmental cue within this mechanism. However, climate change has already led to a shift in seasons for example with a delay of winter or with altered precipitation rates. The photoperiod has not changed though. Thus, evolved fine-tuning of circadian and seasonal rhythms becomes disrupted, potentially affecting population development. In my work, I try to understand the underlying mechanisms of seasonal reproduction and it´s potential effect on individual fitness and population development. The questions I ask are:

         1)    What are the proximate mechanisms inducing seasonal variation in breeding?

         2)    Does seasonal flexibility in reproduction predict physiological and behavioural flexibility?

         3)    Does this flexibility in seasonal breeding correspond to how species cope with climate change and urbanisation?

Pace-of-life and environmental adaptations

Life-history strategies often fall along a fast-slow continuum due to trade-offs between allocation to reproduction or self-maintenance. Pace-of-life syndromes (POLS) are suites of correlated life-history, physiological and behavioural traits that arise due to these trade-offs. Traits often do not vary independently but show patterns of covariation that can arise from genetic and environmental influences on phenotypes. Understanding if and how environmental conditions influence POLS is important for understanding evolutionary adaptations because covariation between traits can constrain evolution. One of my group ́s projects investigates how food quality affects mice ́ life history, physiology and behaviour across several generations. By combining methods from molecular (epi-)genetics, neuroendocrinology, behavioural and cognitive research, we ask:

1) Which aspects of the phenotype (behaviour, morphology, physiology, life history) adapt to changes in food quality and how fast?

2) Which roles do a) short-term flexibility, b) developmental plasticity, c) parental effects and d) transgenerational effects play in adaptation to environmental changes?

3) What are the proximate mechanisms generating phenotypic adaptations?