Larger broods beg more, parents feed more – but chicks still grow more slowly, suggesting that the energetic costs of competition are to blame. 🐣
brill.com/view/journal...
@gelifes.bsky.social @rug.nl
Proportion of time spent on each behaviour by chicks in small and large broods divided in the age categories of the chicks.
New research in #Behaviour: “Begging efficiency rather than food received causes brood size effect on growth in zebra finches” by Marianthi Tangili, Michael Briga and Simon Verhulst.
@mtangili.bsky.social
We find that lower growth rate for zebra finch nestlings raised in large broods is likely attributable, at least in part, to increased energy expenditure on begging and limits to parental allocation efficiency, rather than solely a reduction in their feeding frequency.
New paper out on the begging behavior of cross-fostered zebra finch nestlings raised in small and large broods 🐣
brill.com/view/journal...
Congratulations to Dr @euantheyoung.bsky.social who defended his PhD yesterday on 'Family matters: The role of trade-offs in shaping human life-histories and health' research.rug.nl/en/publicati... @rug.nl supervised with @erikpostma.bsky.social @lummaalab.bsky.social 🎉
The age-specific trajectories of 13 phenotypic traits in individuals the Seychelles warbler population of Cousin Island (dates differ per dataset, minimum date 1981, maximum date 2022) identified through Generalized Additive Models. The x-axis is age in years, and the y-axis is the trait value; all traits, except for annual reproductive success, survival and malaria, are z-transformed. The solid black line depicts the model-predicted curve and the grey shaded areas depict the standard error. Blue points are raw data points. RTL = relative telomere length. ARS = Annual Reproductive Success. For buffy coat (Fig 1h & i), F indicates female, M indicates male.
"Asynchrony of ageing among traits in a wild bird population"
doi.org/10.32942/X27...
Extremely proud of my good friend and colleague @euantheyoung.bsky.social whose work is featured in @nrc.nl. Read bellow for some excellent science and fascinating results. 👪🤰👶🧬
13/ And since I have you here, it's time for some shameless plugging!
I defend my PhD ( :O ) next week, and if you are interested in more of what I got up to over the past few years, you can check out an @nrc.nl here: www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...
1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
Very excited about this work now out in
@molecology! We test whether🐦with ⬆️dispersal propensity differ in the nº CpGs across the genome, with the hypothesis that⬆️CpGs allow for⬆️epigenetically-driven plasticity facilitating environmental coping
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
While these findings are a first step towards deciphering the role that epigenetic changes of sex chromosomes play in aging, further research across diverse taxa will be essential to uncover conserved mechanisms underlying the aging process and sex-dependent aging.
Our results highlight distinct age-related changes in sex chromosome DNA methylation compared to the rest of the genome, suggesting this previously understudied feature of sex chromosomes may be instrumental in sex-dependent aging.
🚨 New paper alert!
We find a small fraction of all CpG sites to show age-related changes in DNA methylation with the majority of them being located on the haploid, female-specific W chromosome in two passerines. 🐦🧬⌛
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Come & work with us - fully funded 4 year PhD on Social Ageing: Social environment effects on senescence, using an epigenetic clock www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor... @rug.nl @david-s-richardson.bsky.social @keesvanoers.bsky.social @seychelleswarbler.bsky.social photo: @charlisdavies.bsky.social
Having older siblings affects a child’s chance of survival – but the precise effect depends on the older siblings’ sex and age
go.nature.com/46oaaCU
Great paper indeed 👏
Long-term effects of early-life adversity on DNA methylation in zebra finches www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04....
Plots illustrating the results of an interrupted time series analysis of submission and acceptance rates, showing a decline in submission rates but little to no change in acceptance rates post-COVID-19 pandemic.
How did the #COVID-19 pandemic shape scientific productivity? Stephanie Meirmans, @maurineneiman.bsky.social, Shalene Singh-Shepherd @royalsocietypublishing.org and I crunched the submission and acceptance data for 25 journals in #Ecology&Evolution: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... @uniexecec.bsky.social
This method utilizes extensive, high-resolution, freely available data and enables regional-scale monitoring regardless of cloud cover, enhancing savanna conservation strategies in response to changes in land use and climate. #RemoteSensing #Ecology #Convervation
New paper alert🚨
We used calibrated Sentinel-1 backscatter coefficients to estimate grass biomass, woody canopy volume and tree basal area in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem.
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
In my ✨academic influencer ✨ era
#TopViewedArticle @wiley.com
Glad to see that our efforts for accessible, transparent and reproducible research are being recognized!
@unigroningen.bsky.social
#openresearch #openscience #rug
1/11
New preprint out with @hannahdugdale.bsky.social, @lummaalab.bsky.social, and @erikpostma.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Why do we age? And can a “natural experiment” during the Great Finnish Famine with long-term data help provide some answers?
Begging costs rather than food received cause brood size effect on growth in zebra finches www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01....
🚨 New preprint alert!
More siblings, fiercer competition, extra food—but stunted growth! 🐦🍕📏
In zebra finches raised in large broods, increased energy spent on begging—not less food—causes reduced growth.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I have only received an email with the outcome of papers I reviewed from Wiley journals before 🤔
