How Birds Cope with Different Climates and Changing Environments

Welcome to the webpages of the Physiological Ecology section of the Animal Ecology Group!

How do birds deal with their surroundings? Disease, heat, lack of food, humans changing their environments; these are examples of challenges that birds face. We study how wild birds cope with these challenges - in the field and in the lab. Our focus is on birds from different, often extreme(!) environments. We explore how species, populations or individuals adjust their life to predictable and unpredictable variation in environmental conditions. Variation in time and in space. Our studies emphasize the role of physiological systems (energy, water, immune function) in ecological processes and evolutionary adaptations.

Please browse through these webpages to get an impression of who we are and what we do. If you have questions or would like to be involved in our research, please contact Irene Tieleman.