About

My broad interest is how animals are dealing with challenges, and particularly, how they deal with extreme climatic events and habitat loss. This is a very relevant question, because our globe is warming in a rapid pace, extreme events are more common and extensive habitat of wildlife are being transformed. Many species must respond to events and adjust to new conditions in order to survive.

Currently I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Behavioural and Physiological Ecology in University of New England, Australia.

My work here focuses on three main topics:

• Development of thermoregulation in precocial birds, and how thermal challenge during incubation and early development affect their fitness during adulthood;

• How changing conditions affect migratory birds and their preparation for long journeys. Migration is a physiologically challenging life strategy in which time and energy expenditures must be balanced. Im therefor interested in the role of heterothermy in relation to the energetics of bird movement, and the use of torpor as a migration-assisted strategy while considering the trade-offs for using such strategies;

• The use of torpor as a physiological strategy by sedentary animals to overcome challenging periods and how can we use these to best help to conserve them.

I am also interested in developing non-invasive tools to evaluate physiological conditions of populations, such as the use of feathers as stress biomarkers in birds.

I have worked mainly in the Eastern part of the world (Australia and East Asia), but also on passerine migration and stopover along the Black Sea-Mediterranean Flyway.