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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2010 - present
Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Teilinstitut Radolfzell
February 2008 - present
January 2005 - December 2007

Independent Researcher
Publications
Publications (45)
In migratory species, the timing of arrival at the breeding grounds is a life-history trait with major fitness consequences. The optimal arrival date varies from year-to-year, and animals use cues to adjust their arrival dates to match this annual variation. However, which cues they use to time their arrival and whether these cues actually predict...
Migratory behaviour is rapidly changing in response to recent environmental changes, yet it is difficult to predict how migration will evolve in the future. To understand what determines the rate of adaptive evolutionary change in migratory behaviour, we simulated the evolution of residency using an individual-based threshold model, which allows fo...
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Residency has repeatedly evolved in many migratory animals, some of which have preserved the anatomical adaptations to perform long-range movements. This is the case for partially migratory populations of Mediterranean passerines in which migrants and residents both have a migran...
Abstract The European Common Agricultural Policy has
promoted the intensification of productive olive orchards
and the abandonment of the unproductive ones. This strategy
has resulted in a significant loss of biodiversity and ecosystem
functionality of this type of agroecosystem. Here, we studied
the blackcap Sylvia atricapilla, a common frugivorou...
Climate change has differentially affected the timing of seasonal events for interacting trophic levels, and this has often led to increased selection on seasonal timing. Yet, the environmental variables driving this selection have rarely been identified, limiting our ability to predict future ecological impacts of climate change. Using a dataset s...
Capsule Resident Blackcaps in eastern Spain differ in morphology and isotope profile fromcentral European
conspecifics wintering in the area, but not from locally breeding migrants.
Aims Natural selection shapes flight morphology in relation to migratory habits. Thus, intraspecific variation
in migratory behaviour is often paralleled by morphologic...
In migratory bird species, juveniles normally have shorter and more rounded wings than adults. The causes of this age-specific difference in wing morphology, however, are largely unknown. Here, we used longitudinal data collected over 3 years from a Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca population to assess whether age-related differences in wing morp...
In birds, the allocation of resources to plumage production may have important fitness consequences. However, we have only a limited understanding of how plumage traits respond to natural selection, making it difficult to predict how variation in plumage traits may contribute to the adaptation of birds to environmental change. In this study, we col...
.—Moult is one of the most energy-demanding events in the annual cycle of a migratory bird. As a consequence, moult patterns have evolved that separate moult from other costly life-cycle stages and that exclude unnecessary replacement of the feathers. We studied two Spanish blackcap Sylvia atricapilla populations with the aim of elucidating variati...
Our understanding of avian migration has progressed significantly, yet the selective conditions that favor the arrival of males before females at the site of reproduction remain largely unclear. Here, we review the leading adaptive hypotheses for protandry, highlight some key empirical studies that test protandry theory, and identify theoretical an...
Partial migration is a common and widespread phenomenon in animal populations. Even though the ecological causes for the evolution and maintenance of partial migration have been widely discussed, the consequences of the genetics underlying differences in migration patterns have been little acknowledged. Here, I revise current ideas on the genetics...
Recent shifts in phenology in response to climate change are well established but often poorly understood. Many animals integrate climate change across a spatially and temporally dispersed annual life cycle, and effects are modulated by ecological interactions, evolutionary change and endogenous control mechanisms. Here we assess and discuss key st...
Bird migration is one of the most spectacular and best-studied phenomena in behavioural biology. Yet, while the patterns of variation in migratory behaviour and its ecological causes have been intensively studied, its genetic, physiological and neurological control remains poorly understood. The lack of knowledge of the molecular basis of migration...
Sex and age classes of many seasonally reproducing organisms segregate in space and time during the non-reproductive period. Sexual segregation may arise due to differences in habitat preference, social affinity and energetic or nutritional requirements of males and females (Ruckstuhl, 2007). In bird species of the temperate zone, latitudinal sexua...
Global warming is impacting biodiversity by altering the distribution, abundance, and phenology of a wide range of animal and plant species. One of the best documented responses to recent climate change is alterations in the migratory behavior of birds, but the mechanisms underlying these phenotypic adjustments are largely unknown. This knowledge i...
Migration determines where, when, and in which order males and females converge for reproduction. Protandry, the earlier arrival of males relative to females at the site of reproduction, is a widespread phenomenon found in many migratory organisms. Detailed knowledge of the determinants of protandry is becoming increasingly important for predicting...
Ya existen incontables evidencias que demuestran que muchos grupos taxonómicos, en muchas partes del mundo y en todo tipo de ecosistemas, respuestas a los cambios experimentados por el clima durante el último siglo. Las aves destacan por ser uno de los grupos en que dichas evidencias abarcan más facetas de la biología y ecología de las especies, de...
Many organisms use day length as a cue for synchronizing their life cycles with seasonal changes in environmental productivity. Under rapid climate change, however, responses to day length may become maladaptive, and photo-responsive organisms may only be able to evade increasingly unsuitable habitats if they can accommodate to a wide range of phot...
Global climate change is having a major impact on the viability of species. Whether a particular population will survive or go extinct will depend on its potential to adapt to new environmental conditions. In migratory birds, the timing of spring migration is one of the major determinants of the timing of reproduction, and, as spring temperatures i...
One of the characteristics of avian migration is its variability within and among species. Variation in migratory behavior,
and in physiological and morphological adaptations to migration, is to a large extent due to genetic differences. Comparative
studies suggest that migratory behavior has rapidly and independently evolved in different lineages....
Evolutionary change results from selection acting on genetic variation. For migration to be successful, many different aspects
of an animal’s physiology and behaviour need to function in a co-coordinated way. Changes in one migratory trait are therefore
likely to be accompanied by changes in other migratory and life-history traits. At present, we h...
Long-distance migratory birds often show little phenotypic variation in the timing of life-history events like breeding, molt, or migration. It has been hypothesized that this could result from low levels of heritable variation. If this were true, the adaptability of long-distance migratory birds would be limited, which would explain the vulnerabil...
In birds, the annual change in daylength is the most important environmental cue used for synchronising breeding, moult, and migration with recurrent seasonal fluctuation in environmental conditions. Human-caused environmental changes may affect photo-responsive birds in two ways: (1) The photoperiod may become an unreliable predictor of favourable...
Organisms may respond to changing environments by evading the new conditions or by adapting to them. Recently, a large body of evidence has been collected indicating that phenotypic adaptation to climate change is widespread. Adaptation may be achieved by phenotypic adjustment or by changes in the genetic composition of populations. Both processes...
In small bird species, energy-demanding life cycle stages such as moult and migration are generally separated in time. The extent of separation can vary considerably within and between species, but the causes of this variation are largely unknown. We studied the phase relation between postjuvenile moult and autumn migration by experimentally manipu...
Recent climatic change is causing spring events in northern temperate regions to occur earlier in the year. As a result, migratory birds returning from tropical wintering sites may arrive too late to take full advantage of the food resources on their breeding grounds. Under these conditions, selection will favour earlier spring arrival that could b...
Since the very beginning of bird migration research in the early 18th century, a number of intriguing observations have made people doubt whether migration was entirely determined by the environment. For instance, the activity of caged birds deprived of environmental cues during the migratory season, the migration of young birds without experience...
A considerable number of bird species of the northern hemisphere have been breeding earlier over the last few decades, most probably in response to global warming. In migratory birds, there is also a trend towards later departure from the breeding grounds in autumn. Yet it is not known whether this trend in the timing of migration reflects an evolu...
In recent decades, global temperature has increased at an unprecedented rate. This has been causing rapid environmental shifts that have altered the selective regimes determining the annual organization of birds. In order to assess the potential for adaptive evolution in the timing of autumn migration, we estimated heritabilities of the onset of mi...
In recent decades, global temperature has increased at an unprecedented rate. This has been causing rapid environmental shifts that have altered the selective regimes determining the annual organization of birds. In order to assess the potential for adaptive evolution in the timing of autumn migration, we estimated heritabilities of the onset of mi...
Pulido F., Coppack T., Berthold P. 2001. Genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity may explain adaptive changes in the timing of autumn migration. Ring 23, 1-2: 149-158. Here, we review recent experiments on the genetic and environmental control of the timing of autumn migration in the Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) with the aim of predicting the...
Most migratory bird populations are composed of individuals that migrate and individuals that remain resident. While the role of ecological factors in maintaining this behavioral dimorphism has received much attention, the importance of genetic constraints on the evolution of avian migration has not yet been considered. Drawing on the recorded migr...
The presence of additive genetic variation is a prerequisite for changes in migratory behaviour through selection. Previous work with the blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla, has shown that the urge to migrate and the migratory direction are under genetic control. Here we examine whether migratory activity in this species has a significant additive geneti...
Bird ringing is the most widespread and longest established approach for studying avian migration patterns. It has been pivotal to the investigation of the evolution of migration by providing information on migration routes and their variation in space and time. Most hypotheses on the evolutionary history of migratory behavior, and constraints on e...
Environmental conditions under which extant migration patterns have evolved are diverse and have been changing repeatedly. As a consequence, avian migration is expected to be highly adaptable. Adaptation of migratory behavior in response to changing environments may be accomplished by different mechanisms and at different levels. Adaptive phenotypi...