Jurrian van Irsel

Jurrian van Irsel MSc

Bezoekadres

Droevendaalsesteeg 10
6708 PB Wageningen

+31 (0) 317 47 34 00

The Netherlands

Netwerk

Over

My research focusses on vector borne diseases in bird populations to investigate which birds are impacted by these diseases and detect the underlying mechanism of these effects. My project includes an in-depth study on Common blackbirds.

Biografie

I started in 2016 with the study Applied Biology at the HAS Hogeschool, which was followed by the Master Biology at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. During my masters I worked on modelling population dynamics and effects of environmental conditions on the populations of Oystercatchers, Kentish and Ringed plovers.

Publicaties

Peer-reviewed publicaties

  • Ecography
    08-04-2025

    Spatio‐temporal Usutu virus model explains Eurasian blackbird Turdus merula population trends

    Jurrian van Irsel, Henk P. van der Jeugd, Willem Fred De Boer, Kevin D. Matson, Judith M A van den Brand, Marion P G Koopmans, Ruud P. B. Foppen
    Emerging vector-borne pathogens (VBPs) pose significant global health threats, occasionally causing widespread outbreaks with high wildlife mortality. Understanding climatic and anthropogenic drivers behind transmission dynamics in wildlife populations is key to mitigate health risks. Citizen science data may allow us to investigate the spread of pathogen outbreaks as it can be collected over a wide range within short time periods. In this study, we explored the use of wildlife mortality data to model the annual occurrence of VBPs. Making use of retrospective Eurasian blackbird Turdus merula mortality data collected within a citizen science program, we employed an ecological niche modelling framework to model the annual distribution of Usutu virus (USUV) in the Netherlands. Based on these modelled USUV occurrence probabilities, we assessed the impact of the USUV occurrence on blackbird populations. Our results reveal a rapid south–north spread of USUV across the Netherlands within three years with an average expansion rate of 91 km year-1. This spread led to significant population declines in blackbirds, reducing population numbers by 30% compared to pre-USUV levels. Our study demonstrated that citizen science bird mortality surveillance can generate useful data to model the spatial transmission intensity of VBP over time that follows the declines in wildlife populations. Higher winter and spring temperatures, which may have facilitated early development of mosquito populations and resulted in greater mosquito abundance later in the year, had a positive impact on the USUV occurrence estimates. While our approach proved successful in modelling pathogen distribution using a well-monitored species like the blackbird, it may be less effective for pathogens that cause minimal wildlife mortality or affect species that are harder to detect. This study provides a first example of a spatio-temporal estimation of USUV transmission intensity in Europe, offering a framework for investigating the annual impact of USUV outbreaks on wildlife populations.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.07759
  • Ibis
    2022

    State-dependent environmental sensitivity of reproductive success and survival in a shorebird

    Jurrian van Irsel, Magali Frauendorf, B.J. Ens, Martijn van de Pol, Karin Troost, Kees Oosterbeek, Hans de Kroon, Eelke Jongejans, Andrew Allen

    To understand the consequences of anthropogenic and environmental changes for wildlife populations, it is important to study how individuals differ in their sensitivity to environmental change and whether this depends on individual characteristics. An individual's reproductive performance may provide an integrative, unidimensional proxy of an individual's characteristics. In this study, we define an individual's characteristics by three such reproductive states, namely successful, failed and non-breeders in the previous year. We used a 16-year dataset of individually marked breeding Eurasian Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus to examine the interannual fluctuations in reproductive success and survival among breeding states, and their state-dependent sensitivity to environmental conditions. Environmental conditions included available biomass of the main prey species of breeding Oystercatchers (Ragworm, Baltic Tellin and Lugworm), tidal height, which reflects one of the main causes of nest loss (flooding), and conditions that may impact the energetic requirements during incubation, such as temperature. We also included environmental variables measured in winter, including available biomass of the main winter prey species (Blue Mussel and Common Cockle) along with factors that may affect food availability and energetic requirements for homeostasis, namely bivalve weight loss, windchill, winter severity and precipitation. Breeding birds that were successful the previous year had higher survival and were more likely to remain successful, in comparison with failed or non-breeders. The effects of environmental conditions acted in the same direction on reproductive success but had opposite effects on survival among the three breeding states, especially for windchill and Blue Mussel biomass. The contrasting state-dependent effects of the environment on survival thus averaged out when examining consequences for lifetime reproductive nest success (LRnS); instead, LRnS was largely influenced by environmental conditions acting upon reproduction. Our study indicates that an individual's previous breeding state provides an integrative measure of heterogeneity in individuals' sensitivity of reproduction and survival to environmental change. Incorporating previous breeding state as a source of individual heterogeneity in population modelling may improve predictions of future population dynamics in a rapidly changing world.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.13038

Projecten & samenwerkingen

Projecten

  • One Health PACT - Predicting Arboviruses Climate Tipping points

    Project 2020–2025
    Our water-dominated landscape, combined with a dense human- and livestock population make the Netherlands particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of zoonotic viral diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes among avian and mammalian host species.
    koolmees

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