A Research Unit is made up of a team of outstanding researchers working together on a research project which, in terms of thematic focus, duration and finances, extends beyond the funding options available under the Individual Grants Programme or Priority Programme. Research Units are funded by the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)". The Department of Biology is involved in:
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In an explicitly evolutionary context, this Research Unit concentrates on studying how adult behavioural traits result as a consequence of different social and foraging conditions during early ontogeny. Our approach emphasizes that plasticity is an adaptive mechanism building the adult behavioural phenotype during ontogeny. We investigate the ontogenetic response to relevant ecological factors with an explicit focus on fitness effects of trait adjustments. We approach the problem in a comparative way concentrating on a few species from different taxa (mammals, birds, insects) for which we have massive prior experience.
In this research group scientists from Bielefeld University closely cooperate with others from the University of Münster and Potsdam.
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