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My main interests lie in the topic of climate change, and how migratory birds are able to adjust timing of migration and reproduction to a warming environment. I focus on Arctic-breeding birds, as their breeding grounds are subject to rapid changes in climate warming, in contrast to their temperate and tropical wintering grounds.
I studied Forest and Nature Conservation at the Wageningen University, where I graduated in 2013. During my MSc I assisted in the Arcese Lab in the University of British Columbia, Canada, where I worked on vegetation change under influence of a fluctuating gull population. I participated in a project at the Royal NIOZ on foraging behaviour of Crab Plovers in Oman, where we used UvA-BiTS loggers to track Crab Plovers, while simultaneously measuring food availbillity, in order to make predictions on their foraging behaviour. In the spring of 2013 I studied breeding biology and the use of cattle dung around nests of Black Larks in Kazakhstan.
Since November 2013 I work on the NIOO as a PhD student, where I study timing of migration in Arctic breeding barnacle geese and the influence of climate change, in collaboration with prof. dr. Bart Nolet and dr. Henk van der Jeugd. In this project we intensively collaborate with the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam (IBED), from which we use their UvA-BiTS trackers to follow barnacle geese on their migration.
Links
Arctic Barnies: studying the effects of climate warming in the Arctic on optimal timing in a long-distance migratory goose
with: Bart Nolet, Henk van der Jeugd, Götz Eichhorn, Adriaan Dokter
Barnacle Geese are long-distance migrants which we see wintering in the Netherlands, but which breed far North in the Russian Arctic. While migrating Northwards to the breeding grounds, the geese time their migration schedule along a 'green wave' of spring grass growth, arriving at the breeding grounds well before this food peak which then coincides with the chick growth period. Arriving early on the breeding grounds trades off with acquiring ample body stores to fuel migration and the incubation period. Future climate change is expected lead to a stronger warming in the Arctic region than elsewhere, a process known as Arctic amplification. This could very well lead to a mismatch in food peaks along the migratory route of the Barnacle Geese, which would force the geese on an even tighter migration schedule. The question arises how well Barnacle Geese can cope with Arctic amplification, and how this would influence the trade-off between arriving early and with a good body condition and subsequent breeding success.
I track Barnacle Geese to their breeding grounds, using a combination of geolocators, GPS loggers and transmitters to determine the migration routes and schedules of the geese. On the breeding grounds in the Russian Arctic, I follow the movements of the geese, measure body condition and monitor breeding success. Below you can see the different migration strategies that these geese use.
More information and updates on this project, including reports and pictures on last year's expedition to Arctic Russian, can be found on my blog: www.tobseda.com
A documentary on our research was shown on Dutch television, watch it here!
Recent publications in this project:
Lameris, T. K., Jochems, F., Graaf, A. J., Andersson, M., Limpens, J., & Nolet, B. A. (2017). Forage plants of an Arctic‐nesting herbivore show larger warming response in breeding than wintering grounds, potentially disrupting migration phenology. Ecology and evolution, 7(8), 2652-2660.
Lameris, T. K., Scholten, I., Bauer, S., Cobben, M. M., Ens, B. J., & Nolet, B. A. (2017). Potential for an Arctic‐breeding migratory bird to adjust spring migration phenology to Arctic amplification. Global Change Biology.
Nesting in the muck: breeding biology of Black Larks in a changing steppe landscape
with: Johannes Kamp, Thijs Fijen
Black Larks are enigmatic larks with a completely black plummage, and endemic to the steppes of Kazakhstan. Here population numbers are fluctuating due to changes in land use and grazing densities of wild and domestic ungulates, which have started to change after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Recently it has been discovered that the life of Black Larks might be even more intertwined with large ungulates, as they transport cattle and horse dung to their nests to build large 'pavements'. We have studied this behaviour and other aspects of breeding biology of Black larks on the Kazakh steppes.
Recent publications in this project:
Fijen, Thijs PM, Johannes Kamp, Thomas K. Lameris, Genrietta Pulikova, Ruslan Urazaliev, David Kleijn, and Paul F. Donald. "Functions of extensive animal dung “pavements” around the nests of the Black Lark (Melanocorypha yeltoniensis)." The Auk 132, no. 4 (2015): 878-892.
Lameris, Thomas K., Thijs PM Fijen, Ruslan Urazaliev, Genrietta Pulikova, Paul F. Donald, and Johannes Kamp. "Breeding ecology of the endemic Black Lark Melanocorypha yeltoniensis on natural steppe and abandoned croplands in post-Soviet Kazakhstan." Biodiversity and Conservation (2016): 1-20.
More information on this project can be found on blacklarks.blogspot.com
