About me

I am originally from The Netherlands but traveled to Canada to pursue my PhD, and to the United States for a postdoc. Now, I'm having a great academic adventure in Chile for my second and third postdoc. I'm curious where my academic career will take me next!

In my spare time, I like to climb, hike, canoe, surf. or do any other outdoor adventure with my husband.

Annemarie van der Marel

IEB postdoctoral fellow

Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Chile

www.ieb-chile.cl

Email, for more details see contact page

I am a behavioural ecologist studying social evolution and invasion biology. I am interested in understanding the selective pressures and constraints that influence social behaviour as well as the resiliency of non-endemic species to changes in their socioecological environment at ecological (lifetime) and evolutionary timescales. I investigate how species navigate both their social and ecological environment and how traits at both the individual- and group-level influences fitness. By determining the adaptive capacity of animal populations (resilience), we can not only develop informed management and conservation decisions but also elucidate the evolution of sociality.

Currently, I hold a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Ecology & Biodiversity (IEB), working with Dr. Anibal Pauchard at the Universidad de Concepción and Dr. Constanza Napolitana at the Universidad de los Lagos. I am studying the ecological and socioeconomic impact of the non-endemic bird community in Chile.

Previously, I was a FONDECYT postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Luis Ebensperger at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, studying the role individual degus play within their social groups. I completed a postdoctoral position in Dr. Liz Hobson’s lab at the University of Cincinnati, USA, where I studied aggression and social information in monk parakeets. I obtained my Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Manitoba, Canada, where I studied the life history traits, the social system and anti-predator behavior in a non-endemic island population of Barbary ground squirrels on Fuerteventura, Spain. I obtained a Master of Science degree in behavioural ecology from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, where I studied individual differences in behavior in relation to survival and reproductive success using different study systems. For more details see the ‘research’ page.

My research uses an integrative approach of behavioural, empirical, comparative, and computational studies to better understand social evolution. I combine both field-based observational and manipulative experiments, such as radio telemetry, acoustic analysis, personality experiments, with laboratory approaches, such as genetic analysis, to gain an understanding of the selective pressures and constraints that influence social behaviour and to study how animals can adapt to changing environments. I perform my statistical analyses in R and describe interaction patterns at multiple social scales (individual, group, and population-level) using social network analysis which provides us the opportunity to study resilience.

Montana Tindaya, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain. I had a view of this sacred mountain from my field sites.