The ecological consequences of behavioural syndromes or “personality”

 

Supervisors : Dr. Mark Whittingham and Dr. Steve Rushton

 

In this PhD project, I am aiming to investigate the ecological consequences of animal personality, or behavioural syndromes.

To do so, I use starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) as my main study species, and attempt to combine observations from field studies with controlled aviary experiments. In collaboration with Dr Peter Evans and Dr Jane Reid I use a breeding population of Starlings on Fair Isle, Shetland, as a field study system.

Jeroen Minderman

PhD Student

 

                                 School of Biology & Psychology

                                 Ridley Building

                                 Newcastle University

                                 Newcastle upon Tyne

                                 NE1 7RU

 

Room no.:             454

Telephone:          +44 (0) 191 222 5952

Email:                    Jeroen.Minderman “at” newcastle.ac.uk

Research background

In most studies of behavioural ecology, the “classic adaptationist” view is that individuals will always respond optimally to any change in their environment (e.g. Krebs & Davies 1991). In this view, inter-individual differences in behaviour are considered to be non-adaptive variation around an adaptive mean.

 

Recent interest in individual behaviour that is consistent and correlated across contexts and situations (behavioural syndromes or ‘personality’) has shifted the focus from such optimal behavioural plasticity to limited behavioural plasticity due to behavioural syndromes (Sih et al. 2004a). Individuals with distinct suites of correlated behaviours have been identified in a range of taxa, including mammals, fish, cephalopods, crustaceans (reviewed by Wilson et al. 1994) and birds (Verbeek et al. 1996; 1999). Although the existence of behavioural syndromes can be interesting in itself, analysis of their relevance in an ecological and evolutionary context is vital because they are expected to constrain the flexibility of individuals to adapt to their environment (Sih et al. 2004a; 2004b; Dingemanse & Reale 2005).

The overall aim of this project will be to study the occurrence and relevance of behavioural syndromes in wild birds, and investigate their relevance to individual ecology and life-histories. More specifically, this project will aim to:

Other research interests

 

Farmland bird ecology,

Flocking and the group size effect

Predator-prey dynamics,

Behaviourally-mediated indirect effects,

Resource and interference competition,

Behaviour-based modelling and ideal free distribution models

Selected past research projects

 

Interference competition and the trade-off between intake rate and predation risk in redshanks (Tringa totanus).

Masters’ project in Ecology, with Dr Will Cresswell (University of St Andrews) and Dr Johan Lind(Stockholm University). See ‘Publications’.

Populations in a changing environment – decision models as tools to project the dynamics of wild populations.

Essay in Theoretical Biology With Professor Franjo Weissing and Dr Wouter Vahl (University of Groningen).

The effect of weather and tide on the intake rate of Eurasian Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus)

Masters’ project in Ecology, with Drs Anne Rutten, Kees Oosterbeek (University of Groningen)and Dr Bruno Ens (Alterra Green World Research).

Competition and facilitation between two herbivores on a temperate salt marsh

Undergraduate research project with Dr Julia Stahl and Dr Sandra van der Graaff

About me

Between 1999 and 2005, I did my undergraduate and masters’ degree in ecology at the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. During these studies I worked a lot in the Dutch Wadden Sea area and I still love wading bird ecology. One of my Masters’ projects was with Will Cresswell (University of St Andrews) in the Tyninghame estuary, Scotland.

I love ecology and ornithology, being outside, and spend most of my free time training as a BTO bird ringer, or on photography. I live in Newcastle, and frequently visit home in Groningen, The Netherlands.

1)       Develop methods to investigate behavioural syndromes in the field

2)       Investigate whether behavioural syndromes are measurable in particular populations in the field

 

3)       Investigate whether such syndromes are related to ecological parameters, such as flocking– and anti-predatory behaviour, ranging behaviour and survival

 

4)       Investigate whether populations differ in the expression of particular personality traits and/or the relationship between these traits to ecological parameters.

 

Publications

 

Minderman, J., Lind, J. & Cresswell, W. (2006) Behaviourally mediated indirect effects: interference competition increases predation mortality in foraging redshanks. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 713-723.   download PDF

Cresswell, W., Lind, J., Quinn, J.L., Minderman, J. & Whitfield, D.P. (In press) Ringing or colour-banding does not increase predation mortality in redshanks.

 

 

 

 

Back to Newcastle University - Behaviour and Ecology group

 

 

Created on 15 November 2006

Jeroen Minderman