Animal Behaviour

Our research uses state of the art genomic approaches including high-throughput sequencing, transcriptomics, high density SNP arrays and whole genome resequencing to understand the genetic basis of fitness variation in and among natural populations. Our programme currently has two main thrusts: (i) using long-term, highly detailed, individual-based studies of wild vertebrate populations to understand the relationship between heterozygosity and fitness and how this feeds into mating systems; and (ii) combining genomics and transcriptomics with geographical, time series and experimental approaches to explore the genetic basis of adaptation to climate change in marine invertebrate populations. These two themes coincided in a recent Nature paper in which we could show that climate change has been increasingly selecting for heterozygosity in an Antarctic fur seal population.
 

For our new website, which includes details of our research projects, group member's pages and downloadable PDFs of all publications, please go to: The Hoffman group website

Research Interests

• Population, evolutionary and conservation genetics
• Behavioural ecology of pinnipeds
• Relationship between heterozygosity and fitness
• Population structure of Antarctic invertebrates

Opportunities

As I am currently building up a research group in Bielefeld, I would very much welcome applications from students or postdocs who would like to work with me. If you are interested in any of the research topics described above, or have your own ideas for related projects, please contact me (see sidebar-contact).

Research Interests

Population genomics of shellfish

Research Interests

Evolutionary genomics of Antarctic fur seals

Research Interests

My multidisciplinary areas of research focus on the behavioural ecology, and molecular ecology of wild populations of birds. My research topics include (1) responses of individuals to changing environmental conditions, (2) foraging strategies, (3) reproductive strategies, (4) individual reproductive performance, and (5) the evolutionary consequences of behaviour. My research is conducted on wild populations of parrots, penguins, gulls and petrels since these offer excellent opportunities for testing a number of theoretical predictions. I initiated and lead several projects among them the ‘Breeding biology of Burrowing Parrots’ (since 1998), and ‘How animals distribute themselves in space: energy landscapes of an Antarctic predator’ funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Priority Programme 1158 Antarctic Research.

Some highlights of my research include:

1) using Pachyptila prions (Aves, Procellariiformes), I have demonstrated how additive traits lead to feeding advantage and reproductive isolation, which promoted homoploid hybrid speciation (HHS); HHS has been found only a few times in animals, and I have shown for the first time that additivity of divergent parental traits alone can lead directly to increased hybrid fitness and reproductive isolation (Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msz090); my current research expands on these results, now using whole genome sequencing, through a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) research grant (MA 2574/10-1);

2) using penguin species from Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, GPS and tri-axial-acceleration data, and next-generation sequencing (NGS) of prey remains, I have expanded the energy landscape approach to foraging research, which provides a detailed mechanistic basis of spatial ecology and decision making in animals; energy landscapes allowed me to link the quantification of the variation in the energy costs of movements through a given environment, as well as how these costs vary in time and between contrasting sites, with breeding success and the species’ population trend; I also showed that such link was mediated by the physiological condition of the individuals (Movement Ecology, doi:10.1186/s40462-021-00255-9);

3) using GPS and tri-axial-acceleration data, and machine learning methods, I have been able to follow wild common woodpigeons for over two years, and being able to investigate year-round behavioural time budgets, and to identifying and classify crucial behaviours (foraging, flying, resting), an accomplishment achieved only a few times until now that opens several lines of future research in foraging ecology (Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, doi:10.1007/s00265-023-03306-w);

4) investigating the presence of avian hemoparasites, with molecular methods, in 19 Psittaciformes from all over the planet, I showed that the consumption of food items known for their secondary metabolites with antimalarial, trypanocidal or general antiparasitic properties, explains the low prevalence of hemoparasites reported in many vertebrates (Parasites & Vectors, doi:10.1186/s13071-018-2940-3).

These and other results from my research provide fundamental links among the individuals foraging behaviour, their response to changing environmental conditions, their reproductive performance, which allow a better understanding of the persistence of populations and the evolution of species in a changing world.

Research Interests

Research Interests

Genomic dissection of climate change impacts on a declining Antarctic top predator population

"Research" Interests

• Predator-prey interactions

Bielefeld Young Researchers’ Fund

Research interest: fur seal epigenetics

I am a molecular ecologist working towards my PhD that focuses on the combination of genetic and chemical data to investigate chemical phenotypes in Antarctic fur seals.

For my PhD project, I aim to unravel the genetic architecture of inbreeding depression in sexually selected traits and the role of DNA methylation in sexual trait expression in black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix).

My PhD project will explore the effects environment and genetics have on individual trait variation in Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella).

Keywords: individualization, genetics, trait variation

Research Interests

COMPOSES – COMparing Polar Ocean SoundscapES, investigating the influence of anthropogenic noise and changing sea ice conditions on the noise budgets and marine mammal communities of two polar regions

Research Interests

Genomic analysis of dispersal and adaptation in porcini mushrooms

Research Interests