Room: online
PhD with Simone Pika, Humboldt Research Group „Evolution of communication“, MPI for Ornithology Seewiesen [more]

The sensory biology of evasive flight in eared moths

PhD defense by Theresa Huegel
PhD with Holger Görlitz, Research Group Acoustic and Functional Ecology, MPI for Ornithology Seewiesen [more]

Physical Causal Cognition in Parrots

Doctoral defense by Laurie O'Neil
Doctorate with Auguste von Bayern and Manfred Gahr, MPI for Ornithology, Seewiesen [more]

Migration and survival in a changing world: Insights on a long-distance avian migrant.

Doctoral defense by Yachang Cheng
Doctorate with Andrea Flack and Martin Wikelski MPI of Animal Behavior [more]

Fitness consequences of physiological responses to environmental variation in wild great tits.

Doctoral defense by Lucia Mentesana
Doctorate with Ela Hau, MPI for Ornithology [more]

Ethical project design for research involving animals

Animal Ethics
Ethical awareness lies at the heart of any research-programme that involves using animals. While we tend to design a project and then consider the ethics, placing research ethics and animal welfare foremost in the development process does more than help to gain approval for the work; a clearly defined harm-benefit analysis can shape the project’s development, underpinning all aspects of the work, and identifying the research benefits from the beginning.In this workshop you will cover all aspects of ethical thinking covered by research regulations and FELASA requirements. You will understand the different attitudes to animals held by society, the core ideas that underpin perspectives and how they have influenced current legislation and practices. Considering ethics in practice does not provide the ‘truth’ but will help you understand the differences between views held by different members of society, and why those perspectives are important. This training uses ethical thinking as a foundation to create a protocol with clear outcomes, and with benefits that can be clearly understood by both those who assess its suitability and those who will work within it. You will learn how to write a clear harm-benefit statement and use it as the focus for a successful research application: one that is approved first time. [more]

Clemens Küpper, MPI für Ornithologie: "Warum (und wie) sich Weibchen emanzipieren" - Allgemeiner Vortrag auf deutsch

Vortrag Clemens Küpper, Seewiesen
Konventionelle Geschlechterrollen, die insbesondere bei Vögeln und Säugetieren weitverbreitet sind, besagen, dass sich vor allem Weibchen um die die Brutpflege kümmern, während Männchen versuchen, ihren individuellen Fortpflanzungserfolg durch Paarungen mit möglichst vielen Partner zu erhöhen. Bei einigen Arten haben es allerdings Weibchen geschafft, sich von diesem klassischen Rollenmodell zu emanzipieren. In meinem Vortrag werde ich am Beispiel des Schneeregenpfeifers Charadrius nivosus mit Hilfe von Langzeitdaten zeigen, wie sich die Emanzipation darstellt und weshalb es gerade in dieser Art zur Rollenumkehr kommt. [more]

Vincent Careau, University of Ottawa: Energetics, behaviour and performance: trait (co)variance across genotypes and species.

Talk Vincent Careau, Seewiesen
During this presentation, I will outline the research program I have put in place over the past five years at the University of Ottawa, on the coadaptations between metabolic, performance, and personality traits. I will present the first results obtained from studies on wild mice, laboratory insects, as well as humans. A common theme in all of our research is the use of quantitative genetic techniques to partition the (co)variance between several traits at different levels of variation. Doing so commonly reveals trait associations that are otherwise undetectable at the aggregated level. [more]

Andrea and Melissa Grunst, University of Antwerp: Interconnections between behaviour, sexual selection and senescence in a dimorphic bird with a supergene

Talk Andrea and Melissa Grunst, Seewiesen
The white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) is an ordinary looking songbird with extraordinary genetics. Both sexes exist in either a white-striped or tan-striped morph, as determined by a >100-Mb inversion-based supergene on the second chromosome. White morph birds are almost all heterozygous for the supergene, suggesting that homozygousity is deleterious. Tan morph birds are homozygous without the supergene. The supergene is associated with a suite of coadapted traits that are expressed by both white males and females, including higher levels of aggressiveness, song and copulation, and lower levels of parental care. Due to behavioral and genetic incompatibilities within white male x white female pairs, white-throated sparrows pair dissassortively by morph. Tan males and white females share parental care relatively equally, whereas white males provide little paternal support to tan partners. We leveraged this unique system and an 18-year long-term dataset regarding reproduction and survivorship to test different evolutionary theories of aging, and elucidate how differences in actuarial and reproductive senescence might affect the balance in fitness between morphs. On one hand, some theories of aging suggest that competitive traits, such as those associated with the supergene, have high physiological costs and promote a live-fast-die-young strategy and faster senescence. On the other hand, intense investment in parental care, as in the tan morph, can also have costs. Furthermore, a more cooperative reproductive strategy, as observed in tan males x white femalepairs, might lessen reproductive costs and dampen senescence rates. Our data do not support high costs of the competitive traits associated with the morph-determining supergene, but rather suggest high costs of unsupported parental care, and that cooperative reproductive strategies might dampen rates of senescence. To better understand how genetics contribute to morph differences in life-history and senescence, more work is needed regarding how specific genes within the supergene affect physiological and self-maintenance differences between the morphs. Such work will ultimately advance understanding of how supergenes promote the persistence of multiple morphs with distinct life-history strategies within a species. [more]

Clinton Francis, California Polytechnic State University and MPIO: Ecological and socio-ecological dimensions of sensory pollution

Talk Clinton Francis, Seewiesen
Human activities are globally pervasive. Although applied ecology and conservation biology has typically focused on how changes in vegetation or land cover influence wild populations and communities, growing evidence suggests that changes in other ecological dimensions, such as the acoustic and lit environment, can have comparable or larger ecological consequences than land cover changes. In this talk, I will discuss my lab’s use of natural and manipulative field experiments, plus large-scale databases, to understand how changes to the acoustic environment and light regimes can influence behavior, reproduction, distributions and ecological interactions. I will focus primarily on birds, but highlight key examples of how changes in sensory environments are highly relevant to human health and wellbeing. [more]

François-Xavier Dechaume-Moncharmont, Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France: The difficulty in life is the choice

Talk François-Xavier Dechaume-Moncharmont
In evolutionary ecology, the process of mate sampling is often considered as a secondary problem compared to the more important question of co-evolution between the traits expressed in one sex and the preferences in the other sex. Since there are direct benefits from choosing a partner, the processes of pair formation have been overlooked as a somewhat trivial question. Yet, the question of the choice between several partners of varying quality is not as simple and immediate as it may seem at first look. Difficulties arise at several levels. The study of mating strategies often begins with field observations at the group or population level, but it is not straightforward to identify the actual choice criterion. If non-random pairing is observed, many authors are tempted to conclude to the existence of an underlying sexual preference. Yet, one cannot directly link the pattern of assortative mating at the population level to a given process of individual choice. Indeed, simple models show that one can easily generate such a pattern without assuming any sexual preference for the individuals. On the contrary, a pattern apparently resulting from random choices can be generated from assumptions in which the individuals actually rely on explicit sexual preferences. More generally, the scramble competition (always arising when there is a limited number of sexual partners) is a sufficiently strong constraint to severely impair the evolution of any choosy decision rules. In most cases, the evolutionary stable strategy is to use very low acceptance threshold. We also provide experimental mechanisms in favour of the adaptive value of this apparent absence of choice. These results emphasize the urgent need for carefully considering the pairing process in sexual selection. [more]

Lena Veit, University of Tübingen: Songbirds can learn flexible contextual control of syllable sequencing

Talk Lena Veit, Seewiesen
The flexible control of sequential behavior is a fundamental aspect of speech, enabling endless reordering of a limited set of learned vocal elements (i.e. syllables or words). Songbirds are phylogenetically distant from humans, but share the capacity for vocal learning as well as neural circuitry for vocal control that includes direct cortical-brainstem projections. Based on these similarities, we hypothesized that songbirds might likewise be able to learn flexible, moment-by-moment control over vocal production. Here, we demonstrate that Bengalese finches, which sing variable syllable sequences, can learn to rapidly modify the probability of specific sequences (e.g. ‘ab-c’ versus ‘ab-d’) in response to arbitrary visual cues. Moreover, once learned, this modulation of sequencing occurs immediately following changes in contextual cues and persists in the absence of external reinforcement. Our findings reveal a capacity in songbirds for learned contextual control over syllable sequencing that parallels aspects of human cognitive control over speech. [more]

Natasha Mhatre, Western University, London, Ontario, CA: An insect that uses a tool to sing and an amplifier to hear

Talk Natasha Mhatre, Seewiesen
Crickets use sound to find each other space over which potential mates can sense each other is determined by the loudness of song and the sensitivity of the auditory system. According to the textbooks, this space is enhanced purely ‘passively’ through morphology and mechanical resonance. Song producting wings and females ears resonate at the same frequency enhancing the size of their acoustic space. But some crickets didn’t read the textbook. In this talk, I will present my research on Oecanthus henryi which is one such species. O. henryi is a tree cricket, and males of this species use an active behavioural strategy to make themselves louder. They manufacture an acoustic baffle, a tool that makes them louder. In fact, using a series of models and experiments, we showed that not only do they manufacture a tool, but they manufacture an optimal tool. Not to be outdone, we found that O. henryi females, have an active physiological amplification system in their ears. Using careful neurobiology we show that the amplifier doesn’t actually make them more sensitive than other crickets, as previously speculated. Rather, it allows them to change the frequency that they are sensitive to. What is even more remarkable is that this amplification is acheived through the activity of only a handful of motors protein. Both findings underline the poverty of our descriptions of invertebrate behaviour and biophysics, and point to a wealth of innovations yet to be discovered even among these ‘simple’ organisms. [more]

Scott Taylor: University of Colorado: Insights from avian hybridization into the origin and maintenance of biodiversity

Talk Scott Taylor, Seewiesen
What generates and maintains biological diversity? This major question in evolutionary biology has fascinated scientists for centuries and continues to drive new and exciting research. Explore recent findings that examine avian hybridization in chickadees and wagtails, species boundaries in redpoll finches, and the genetic basis of spatial cognition, to gain a better understanding of divergence and speciation in birds. From the genetic basis of feather color to metabolic pathways that differ between closely related species, this work is helping us better understand what makes species different, and how those differences contribute to the maintenance of avian biodiversity [more]

Brett K. Sandercock, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research: Use of Occupancy Models in Ecological Monitoring in Norway

Talk Brett K. Sandercock, Seewiesen
The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) is a private research institute with responsibility for monitoring of plants and animals of management interest in Norway: invasive species, harvested species, and red-listed species of conservation concern. Long-term ecological monitoring of these taxa requires efficient sampling methods that provide information on population trends and habitat requirements, while controlling for the problem of imperfect detection rates under field conditions. Occupancy models are a mark-recapture model based on repeated sampling that has the advantage that sampling can be based on detections of unmarked animals. Detections can be recorded with a variety of different kinds of sampling gear, including eDNA for freshwater species, Malaise traps for insects, den checks for mammals, or sound recordings for birds. I will introduce occupancy models and available software tools. To demonstrate the utility of occupancy models for ecological monitoring, I will discuss a variety of recent case studies where models based on single season sampling, multilevel sampling designs, and multiple detection states have provided insights into early detection of invasive species, and population trends and key ecological drivers for harvested populations and species of conservation concern in Norway. [more]

Arkarup Banerjee, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Motor cortical dynamics underlying vocal interactions in the singing mice

Talk Arkarup Banerjee, Seewiesen
Using sounds for social interactions is common across many taxa. Humans engaged in conversation, for example, take rapid turns to go back and forth. This ability to act upon sensory information to generate a desired motor output is a fundamental feature of animal behavior. How the brain enables such flexible sensorimotor transformations, for example during vocal interactions, is a central question in neuroscience. Seeking a rodent model to fill this niche, we are investigating neural mechanisms of vocal interaction in Alston’s singing mouse (Scotinomys teguina) – a neotropical rodent native to the cloud forests of Central America. We discovered sub-second temporal coordination of advertisement songs (counter-singing) between males of this species – a behavior that requires the rapid modification of motor outputs in response to auditory cues. We leveraged this natural behavior to probe the neural mechanisms that generate and allow fast and flexible vocal communication. Using causal manipulations, we recently showed that an orofacial motor cortical area (OMC) in this rodent is required for vocal interactions (Okobi*, Banerjee* et. al, 2019). Subsequently, in electrophysiological recordings, I find neurons in OMC that track initiation, termination and relative timing of songs. Interestingly, persistent neural dynamics during song progression stretches or compresses on every trial to match the total song duration (Banerjee et al, in preparation). These results demonstrate robust cortical control of vocal timing in a rodent and forces us to reconsider the evolutionary origins of motor cortical control of vocal output. [more]

Susan Alberts, Duke University: "The medicine of life": Social life and survival in primates

Talk Susan Alberts, Seewiesen
Longitudinal studies of animal social behavior and demography allow us to understand how environments at one stage of life affect fitness outcomes at another stage of life. This question is important both in the biological sciences and in the human social sciences. Here, I briefly review evidence from the human social sciences that document, and raise important questions about, the profound links between early life, adult life, and longevity. Next, I draw parallels between those studies and biological studies of wild animal systems, where researchers have long studied these links. I argue that wild animal systems, by answering questions that are difficult or impossible to answer in human studies, shed light on the deep evolutionary roots of the human sensitivity to the social environment. They also provide insight into the mechanisms by which environments at one stage of life affect survival outcomes at a later stage of life. Most of the examples I discuss come from my long-term research project, the Amboseli Baboon Research Project. [more]

Computer Vision and Deep Learning Methods forMeasuring and Modeling Animal Behavior

Doctoral defense by Jake Graving
Doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Iain Couzin MPI of Animal Behavior [more]

Environmental influence on Eurasian blackbirds – A field study of physiology and decision making in a small partially migratory songbird

Doctoral defense by Nils Linek
Doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Jesko Partecko and Prof. Wikelski of the MPI of Animal Behavior [more]

Theoretical and empirical investigation of echolocation in bat groups

Doctoral defense by Thejasvi Beleyur
Doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Holger Goerlitz at the MPI for Ornithology and Prof. Iain Couzin, MPI of Animal Behavior [more]

Generation of transgenic zebra finches by the culture and genetic modification of germline stem cells

Doctoral defense by Ivana Lis Gessara
Doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Manfred Gahr at the MPI for Ornithology and Prof. Martin Wikelski, MPI of Animal Behavior [more]

Collective movement and social decision-making in the Vulturine Guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum)

Doctoral defense by Danai Papageorgiou
Doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Damien Farine, MPI of Animal Behavior [more]

Drought Effects on Soil Microorganisms and Ecosystem Services under Organic and Conventional Farming: A Field-Based Investigation with Rainout Shelters

Doctoral defense by Dominika Kundel
Doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Mark van Kleunen, University of Konstanz [more]

Deep representation learning and statistical physics in animal signal-receiver dynamics.

Doctoral defense by Ian Etheredge
Doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Alex Jordan MPI of Animal Behavior [more]

Belowground functional traits of plants as drivers of biodiversity and plant strategies

Doctoral defense by Tom Lachaise
Doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Mark van Kleunen at University of Konstanz [more]

Individual variation in behaviour: adaptive mechanisms and ecological drivers

Doctoral defense by Alexia Mouchet
Doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Niels Dingemanse at Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich [more]

Causes, patterns and consequences of movement in Arctic avian predators

IMPRS: Doctoral defense by Teja Curk
Doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Kamran Safi and Prof. Martin Wikelski at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior [more]

The Role of Habitat Configuration in Shaping the Outcomes of Social Interactions

Doctoral defense by Peng He
Doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Damien Farine at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior [more]

Evolutionary genetics of reproductive performance in the zebra finch

Doctoral defense by Yifan Pei
Doctorate under the guidance of Wolfgang Forstmeier and Bart Kempenaers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. [more]

Plasticity, personality and stability: hidden levels of variation in bird song

Doctoral defense by Alexander Hutfluss
Doctorate under the guidance of Niels Dingemanse at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. [more]

The molecular basis of sweet and umami taste perception in frugivorous and nectarivorous birds

Doctoral defense by Glenn Cockburn
Doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Maude Baldwin at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology [more]
Introduction to Scientific Programming with Python [more]

Convergent evolution of nectarivores: digestive enzymes and other adaptations to sweet diets

Doctoral defense by Daniel Mendez Aranda
Doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Maude Baldwin at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen. [more]

Getting Published & Understanding Peer Review

Getting Published & Mastering Peer Review
Learning to write and respond to reviewers' comments are vital skills for early-career researchers to master if they wish to become established scientists. However, these skills are often neglected, forcing researchers to learn them by trial and error. By learning to address reviewers' comments, young researchers not only increase their chances of getting their work published but also learn to think critically about their own research. Equally, by becoming better reviewers, researchers can raise their profiles with journal editors. Becoming an invited reviewer for a prestigious journal is an opportunity for researchers to enhance their academic reputation and improve their career prospects. [more]

Genomic signals of selection in the adaptive history of owls (Strigiformes)

Doctoral defense by Pamela Espindola Hernandez
Doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Bart Kempenaers, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen.

Career Workshop

Career Workshop
The end of a PhD or a PostDoc comes along with some essential questions: What comes after my PhD or my current PostDoc? Which options do I have? What do I really want to do? What is important to me? Which competencies do I have? How do I put myself into a good light without being too modest? How do I find a position and apply to it? How can I support my own career? How do I get in touch with host institutions or potential employers? How do I best prepare for a job interview? [more]

Sex Contextualism

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