Organisms are generally equipped to adapting to extreme environmental conditions. The increasingly rapid changes in the Anthropocene are now presenting animals, including humans, with completely new challenges. These also affects physiological processes – from the cellular, tissue level to the entire organism – that can lead to long-lasting effects across organisms´ lifespan. In our latest OA review paper, we identified some critical environmental factors responsible of such changes, and advocate a holistic approach to tackle these new research challenges in line with the contemporary One Health framework.
Conventional physiological research focuses on investigating the endogenous mechanisms underlying species’ adaptations to life in extreme habitats such as polar regions or deserts. Here, we argue that nowadays even habitats that are not considered extreme are exposed to unpredictable, rapid and strong (climate) changes due to human activities (and also independently of them) – which confronts all animals, including our species, with new types of environmental extremes.
We explore how ecophysiological research within the field of stress physiology and developmental plasticity can contribute to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying resilience and adaptability. We focused on physiological stress responses (glucocorticoids and oxidative stress) that are likely to have a key role in mediating the interactions between the exposome – i.e. the measure of all environmental influences to which an individual is exposed to throughout the course of its life – and the bio-exposome – i.e. the cellular processes in connection with relevant extreme anthropogenic changes. We focused on changes in habitat conditions associated with heat waves, water shortage, light pollution, noise, land-use, chemical pollution and reduced natural food resources.
The Vetmeduni PR on our latest article is available both in German and in English. We are much grateful to the PR team at Vetmeduni for helping us to communicate our work to broader audiences and contribute to our #OutreachMission #OpenScience.
As animals age, they generally look less good and their telomeres, small structures that protect chromosomes from becoming frayed or tangled, become shorter. In our article we investigated if the effects of age at conception of mothers to the telomeres of their offspring would persist over a subsequent generation (grandoffspring generation), having previously found out that they persisted into the offspring generation.
In this new study, we showed that the shortened telomeres found in the joungsters of older grandmothers are also present in their children, i.e. the grandchildren generation – even if the breeding mothers of the 2nd generation were young. This effect was considerable: telomeres were 43% shorter in the offspring of grandmothers who were old at rearing than in the offspring of the same grandmothers who were young at rearing. Shorter telomeres at the time of fledging are associated with a shorter lifespan in zebra finches. These results indicate that it is necessary to look beyond a single generation to explain inter-individual differences in ageing and different age-specific reproductive efforts. The mothers were young at the time of breeding, so effects due to the age of these mothers can be ruled out. It would be very interesting to know whether the effects of the grandmother’s age increase if the mother’s age is also high.
Our data reveal a hidden legacy that can be passed on across generations and has a negative impact on the lifespan and reproductive value of offspring. We stress, therefore, that evolutionary biologists and ecophysiologists need to look beyond a single generation and current environmental conditions to fully understand the causes of inter-individual differences in ageing rates and age-specific reproductive effort.
The article by Valeria Marasco, Winnie Boner, Kate Griffiths, Shirley Raveh and Pat Monaghan is accessible Open Access 🙂
We are very much grateful to the PR team at Vetmeduni for helping us to communicate our work to broader audiences and contribute to our #OutreachMission #OpenScience Vetmeduni PR article (in German and in English).
Are you a student at @VetmeduniVienna? Are you looking for a Master or Diploma thesis in the field of ecophysiology? We may have the right project for you ✨ with @marcintobolka, Joanna Bialas as main supervisory team 🐦👇
How do birds know when it is time to start their nocturnal long-distance migratory flights? Or, how do mammals know when it is time to hibernate? How modulation in physiology is regulated has fascinated, as much as puzzled, researchers since centuries. It is relatively well understood that the timing of migration in birds is activated by changes in photoperiod as well as internal changes. However, the molecular underpinnings that allow these signals to change seasonally and daily is largely unknown. Filling this knowledge gap is critical to understand how seasonality has driven the evolution of extreme physiological life-history strategies, such as migration and hibernation.
In our new study, we exposed young adult quail (Coturnix coturnix) to controlled changes in day length to simulate autumn migration, and then blocked the photoperiod until the birds entered the non-migratory overwintering phase. We then carried out RNA sequencing of selected brain samples (hypothalamus) taken from birds at a standardized time during the night when the birds entered a “restlessness state” (which is a robust proxy of readiness to migrate in the lab) and their body mass reached the peak.
We found that such restlessness state was linked to an upregulation of a few, but functionally well-defined gene expression networks involved in fat transport, protein and carbohydrate metabolism. We then performed further experiments focusing on two candidate genes (apolipoprotein H [APOH], lysosomal-associated membrane protein-2 [LAMP2]) from day-time and night-time samples from the entire study population. Such analyses revealed differences in the expression of these genes depending on the time of day, with the highest expression levels found in samples from migratory birds taken at night. We also found that the expression of APOH in migratory birds was positively associated with nocturnal activity, while such association was absent within the non-migratory birds.
The results provide novel experimental evidence that hypothalamic changes in the expression of apolipoproteins, which regulate the circulating transport of lipids, are likely to be key regulatory activators of nocturnal migratory movements. We hope that our study will stimulate further functional investigations of the seasonal physiological remodelling underlying the development of the migratory phenotype. Understanding the neurophysiological substrates by which highly seasonal species such as migratory and hibernating vertebrates can adjust their energy metabolism seasonally and daily is key if we are to understand the impact of ongoing climatic challenges on the life history and fitness of organisms as we enter the disruptive phases of the Anthropocene.
We are very much grateful to the PR team at Vetmeduni for helping us to communicate our work to broader audiences and contribute to our #OutreachMission #OpenScience Vetmeduni PR article (in German). A big thank goes to Zuzanna Zielinska who made the beautiful illustration of the flying male and female quail (above).
In preparation for migration, common quail accumulate fat stores and modulate their innate immune functions. They increase their immunity midway through the fattening process. Individuals that accumulate less fat maintain a higher immune response, suggesting a competitive relationship between these processes, explored in the paper by Marcin Tobolka and colleagues. Image credit: Zuzanna Zielinska. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
During their migrations, migratory birds are exposed to numerous pathogens. A functioning immune system is therefore crucial when flying into new environments. However, immunity is energetically costly and competes with other important physiological processes. In our latest work, we examined the extent to which fattening before bird migration influences innate immunity using the common quail as our study species.
While many studies showed that the immunity of birds is often weakened during their strenuous migratory flights, it remains little understood if and how immunity changes during the rapid accumulation of energy stores in preparation for migration. To fill this knowledge gap, we induced pre-migratory fattening through controlled changes in daylight and regularly examined changes in three markers of innate immunity – leukocyte coping capacity (LCC), hemagglutination and hemolysis titers. In addition, body composition, namely lean mass and fat mass, was measured.
We found that all three markers showed similar changes during pre-migratory fattening. The LCC responses, hemagglutination and hemolysis titers were on average higher in the middle fattening phase than in the high fattening phase, here the values were similarly high as before the start of pre-migratory fattening. In the middle phase of fattening, we found that the birds that had a higher fat content had lower peak LCC values and hemolysis titers. Conversely, at this time of fattening, the birds with a higher proportion of lean mass had the highest peak LCC values. We proposed that these results could be due to competing or opposing processes between metabolic remodeling and the function of the innate immune system.
These three immune indicators are integral parts of the innate immune system, which acts quickly and effectively against a wide range of pathogens, even without prior exposure. This aspect is crucial in the context of animal migration, as the ability to respond quickly to various threats is crucial for fitness. For the future, we hope that our work will encourage further studies to obtain detailed information about the remodelling of the immune system during the most energetically demanding phases in the life cycle of migratory birds.
Our article “Controlled expression of avian pre-migratory fattening influences indices of innate immunity” by Marcin Tobolka, Zuzanna Zielińska, Leonida Fusani, Nikolaus Huber, Ivan Maggini, Gianni Pola, Valeria Marasco Biol Open 15 January 2024; 13 (1): bio060018. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.060018 is freely accessible and open access.
Project: Landfill foraging in migratory birds: pain or gain Humane pressure is threatening many organisms to the edge of extinction. However, some species may even profit from human-induced environmental changes. For example, many birds and mammals regularly forage on food waste deposited in landfills. To which extent these anthropogenic food sources can have positive or negative impacts on animals´ life-history decisions and fitness outcomes remain relatively poorly investigated. Our international team aims to tackle this question by studying migratory white storks (Ciconia ciconia) breeding in Poland where we have recently observed a remarkable increase in the use of anthropogenic food sources. The project aims to advance our understanding of the impact of anthropogenic changes on wildlife population health and fitness and contribute to biological conservation. We are seeking 3 PhD candidates to investigate the impact of anthropogenic food sources on various life-history traits of white storks. Using a comprehensive approach, integrating ecological, behavioural, and physiological measurements, the projects focus on one of three scientific subjects: How does parental foraging on landfills modulate 1) survival and fitness, 2) foraging and migration behaviour of juveniles, and 3) how these relate to metabolic and physiological changes during early life. Each PhD is individually supervised by a Project Supervisor from the hosting institution, who will concentrate their training on an individual research project (training-by-research) within one of the three main research subjects.
Project 1 will be based at the Department of Zoology, Poznań University of Life Sciences (PULS) in Poland. It will explore the impact of landfill foraging on breeding outcome, growth, and survival. Project 2 will be based at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) in Konstanz, Germany. The project will examine how foraging in landfills affects migratory decisions. Project 3 will be based at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI), Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni) in Austria. The project will examine the impact of landfill foraging on the physiology and metabolic status of individuals.
Detailed descriptions of the three projects are below. This is a highly collaborative, internationally-based work. We are looking for passionate and motivated researchers who are strongly committed to the research. Regular, mutual interactions and exchanges across the PhD candidates and partner institutions are envisioned and wanted. These will ensure that all candidates will be involved in the research activities of the other projects ensuring a highly vibrant and stimulating environment for the growth and development of young re-searchers. The students will have the opportunity to work at the interface of several disciplines, spanning from ecology, eco-physiology, animal behaviour and movement ecology. Thus, good organisational and communication skills are required because the candidates must communicate well across the project partners.
Deadline for submission: 22nd January 2024. Interviews with selected best candidates: 29th January – 2nd February 2024. Preferred contracts start: 1st – 15th March 2024. Are you interested? Then we are looking forward to receiving your application until 22nd January 2024 through the applicant management system of the MPI-AB. Please include the following documents: • Curriculum Vitae (CV); • Transcript of records (record of study) and degree certificate of bachelor (BSc) degree, Vordiplom or equivalent degree; • Transcript of records (record of study) and degree certificate of Master (MSc) degree, Diplom or equivalent degree (if applicable). If your degree programme is not yet completed, please provide temporary transcripts; • Two letters of recommendation will be required, one from your previous MSc supervisors; • Letter of Motivation, specifically addressing research interests and why you would like to choose the selected project(s)/research topic. Questions about the positions will be answered by Marcin Tobółka at PULS (marcin.tobolka@up.poznan.pl) for Project 1, Andrea Flack at MPI-AB(aflack@ab.mpg.de) for Project 2 and Valeria Marasco at Vemeduni (valeria.marasco@vetmeduni.ac.at) for Project 3.
PhD position 1
Place of residence: Department of Zoology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland. The candidate will be involved in fieldwork (field observations, bird handling and measuring, study system setting (trial cameras, iButton loggers, weather stations, UAVs, GPS-GPRS_ACC transmitters, tissue sampling), laboratory analyses (microbiological and immunological assays), different techniques of quantitative data analysis, and leading the writing of scientific articles and dissemination of the obtained results. The ideal candidate should be prepared to conduct re-search independently and be willing to learn and apply new skills (e.g. in programming (R) or laboratory analyses). Experience in fieldwork and basic skills for analysing spatial data are very welcome. Applicants should hold a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in biology, ecology, animal behaviour, zoology, veterinary medicine or a related subject. Our working language is English. (Polish language skills are not a requirement). Good organisational and communication skills are required because the candidate must communicate well across scientific fields and project partners.
WE ASK •Master’s or equivalent level degree in biology, ecology, veterinary medicine, animal behaviour, zoology or related field • Proficiency in written and spoken English (B2 level – the minimum) • Good organisational and communication skills are required • Driving licence (cars up to 3.5 t) is required • No fear of working at heights (up to 20 m) is required • Willingness to learn R programming languages. Prior familiarity with these or other programming languages is preferred • Basic experience in microbiological or physiological laboratory work is preferred
WE OFFER The successful candidate will join the team of Animal Ecology, Department of Zoology, Poznań University of Life Sciences. We are a young group that explores the elements that shape animal ecology and behaviour, particularly anthropogenic pressure. To do this, we use several animal models in different settings, farm-land birds, wild pollinators in rural and urban landscapes. The white stork population is one of our best study systems with very long-term data on distribution and breeding performance.
PhD position 2
Place of residence: Collective Migration group at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany. The candidate will be involved in different techniques of quantitative and statistical data analysis, leading to the publication of scientific articles. The ideal candidate should be willing to participate in fieldwork in Poland (1-2 months per year). The candidate should be prepared to conduct research independently and be willing to learn and apply new skills (e.g. in programming (R/Python) or computer vision algorithms). Experience and interest in fieldwork are very welcome. In addition, quantitative skills for analysing spatial and temporal data are required. Applicants should hold a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in ecology, animal behaviour, zoology, or a related subject. Our working language is English. Non-native speakers need to provide documentation of their English proficiency (C1level). (German language skills are not a requirement). Good organisational and communication skills are required because the candidate must communicate well across scientific fields and project partners.
WE ASK •Master’s or equivalent level degree in ecology, animal behaviour, or related field. Graduates with a 4-year Bachelor’s degree (with written thesis) in a related subject will be considered in exceptional cases •Proficiency in written and spoken English (C1 level). Non-native speakers need to provide documentation of their English proficiency (e.g. TOEFL). German proficiency is not required • Good organisational and communication skills are required •Willingness to learn R or Python programming languages. Prior familiarity with these or other programming languages is preferred • Experience in data science and statistical modelling is preferred • Driving licence (cars up to 3.5 t) is preferred
WE OFFER The successful candidate will join the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Konstanz. The Flack flock is a small, young group that explores the elements that shape migratory decisions of long-distance migrants. To do this, we use state-of-the-art high-resolution biologging in combination with experimental approaches in the field. The student will join the International Max Planck Research School for Quantitative Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution (IMPRS-QBEE), a joint doctoral program between the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Konstanz.
PhD position 3
Place of residence: Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI), Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. The candidate will perform laboratory eco-physiological analyses (including metabolic hormones, oxidative stress, and telomere dynamics), statistical analyses of collected data, and will lead the writing of scientific articles. The ideal candidate should be willing to participate in fieldwork in Poland (1-2 months per year). The candidate should be prepared to conduct research independently and be willing to learn and apply new skills (e.g. in the field of cellular and organismal physiology). In addition, knowledge of ecophysiology and related laboratory skills is required. Experience and interest in fieldwork are very welcome. Applicants should hold a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in ecology or eco-physiology, animal behaviour, zoology, or a related subject. Our working language is English. German language skills are not a requirement. Good organizational and communication skills are required because the candidate must communicate well across scientific fields and project partners.
WE ASK •Master’s or equivalent level degree in ecology or eco-physiology, animal behaviour, or related field. Graduates with a 4-year Bachelor’s degree (with written thesis) in a related subject will be considered in exceptional cases • Proficiency in written and spoken English. German proficiency is not required • Experience in biological laboratory analyses in the field of ecophysiology or molecular biology are required • Experience in data science and statistical analyses are required; prior experience with R or other programming languages is very welcome • Strong organisation and record-keeping skills to store and analyse data are required; •Driving licence (cars up to 3.5 t) is preferred
WE OFFER The successful candidate will join the wildlife physiology team of the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI, Vetmeduni Vienna) where he/she will be based. The PhD candidate will be supervised by Valeria Marasco in collaboration with other scientists in Vienna and abroad. We are a young group that explores the physiological processes of energy metabolism underpinning animals´ life history trajectories, with an increasing focus on seasonality factors in the context of a rapidly changing world. To do this, we combine state-of-the-art methods, in molecular physiology, endocrinology and redox biology with experimental approaches in the lab and in the field.
The seasonal expression and the migratory phenotype is signalled by rapid and marked changes in food intake, fuelling, and amount of nocturnality. We used common quails (Coturnix coturnix) to assess if the hormone corticosterone and the gut-derived hormone ghrelin play a role in these astonishing physiological transitions. We exposed quails to controlled changes in day length to simulate autumn migration, followed by a wintering period. We compared corticosterone and ghrelin concentrations and assessed whether these two metabolic hormones varied between distinct migratory states. We found that the expression of the migratory phenotype was associated with a sharp elevation in circulating concentrations of ghrelin. Interestingly, we also found that concentrations of ghrelin correlated with changes in body mass (fat stores) of birds as they transitioned into their autumnal migratory state and as they entered the wintering state. Contrary to our predictions we did not detect functional links between plasma corticosterone and the physiological state of the birds and we also did not observe a link between circulating levels of ghrelin and corticosterone.
The article “Ghrelin, not corticosterone, is associated with transitioning of phenotypic states in a migratory Galliform” by Valeria Marasco, Hiroyuki Kaiya, Gianni Pola & Leonida Fusani can be accessed open access here. Vetmeduni Press Release.
At least in part, the brain’s capacity to process cognitive processes depends on the mass of neural tissue involved – the more tissue, the more information can be processed. Studies often find a positive relationship between brain size and cognitive performance. However, majority of these studies are based on comparisons between different species. Scientists are now trying to understand how more subtle differences between individuals of the same species are related to their cognitive skills, which is often a big challenge when studying animals in nature.
A first study in the barn swallow proposed to use external head measurements, which require handling but not the sacrifice of the study subject, as an accurate approximation for brain mass. In this collaborative research with Joanna Bialas and Marcin Tobółka (Poznań University, Poland), we employed this method for the first time in a small Galliform, the Common Quail. We measured both the external head dimensions of the birds as well as the weight of their brains, and tested how well these two measurements were related to each other. Despite we did find that these measurements were correlated, the correlation values we found were not strong enough to allow using external head measurements to predict an individual’s brain mass with high confidence. Moreover, the best predictor of brain mass was not head volume, as previously demonstrated in barn swallows, but the height of the head alone. We therefore recommend validating the original method of external head measurements in each species before making assumptions on how these measurements might be related to brain size and cognitive performance.
So excited to announce that the book I have co-edited with David Costantini “Developmental Strategies and Biodiversity” is now out! A tremendously inspiring project realised with the collaboration of many colleagues that contributed to the writing of the chapters. We are extremely grateful to them for sharing their expertise and knoweldge with us.
The book focuses on the impact of early life experience on the adult phenotype, from its functions to its evolutionary meaning. The book is multi-species (from insect to vertebrate species) and hihgly inter-disciplinary. It includes novel ideas and approaches to understand the evolution of development strategies.
Happy to annouce that our opinion manuscript dissecting out the potential link between early life adversity and adult telomere dynamics is now out in BioEssays
We discuss the main biological routes through which exposure to challenging conditions during development might induce long-lasting changes in the telomeric system, with potential consequences on reproduction and longevity. In this context, we propose three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses – Constraint, Resilience, and Pace of Life – and propose future studies to test them.
Physiological ecology of life histories 