Annemarie van der Marel
​Non-endemic species biology
Non-endemic species provide a unique framework to study evolution of sociality and population biology over a relatively short timeframe and these species are one of the threats to biodiversity. An applied side of my research is to mediate the effects of non-endemic species and to study the factors that influence the success of introduced species.
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Monk parakeets
In the Hobson lab, we studied whether we can use acoustic playbacks for monk parakeet population management (Estien et al. 2022) and are studying how the global distribution of this species influences their vocalizations.
Barbary ground squirrels
From anecdotal accounts we know that two Barbary ground squirrels were introduced to Fuerteventura in 1965. We studied the genetic structure and founding effects of the introduced population and found that the effective population size is only 77 individuals and that there were indeed only 2 founders (Kratzer et al. 2020). We questioned whether life-history traits influenced their success and found that a fast life history does not explain their introduction success alone (van der Marel et al. 2021). We also studied whether we could reproductive inhibitors as population control agents for non-endemic squirrels. This research provides valuable insight into population growth and the corresponding success of an introduced species.