Patrik Karell

Patrik Karell, Post-doctoral researcher e-mail: patrik.karell(at)helsinki.fi Publications

Photo taken by Pekka Kontiainen (copyright)

 

My main research interest is functional ecology ranging from evolutionary ecology to population dynamics. The study systems I am focusing on are tawny owls (Strix aluco) and Ural owls (S. uralensis) and their interactions with periodically fluctuating vole prey. I am interested in host-parasite interactions and mechanisms of reproductive costs and I focus on studying the role of avian malaria parasites as mediators of reproductive costs in these study systems. Both Ural and tawny owls are good study species for studying reproductive costs as they are site tenacious and long-lived and it is therefore possible to follow individuals throughout their lives. I use both long-term data of tawny owls (collected by ornithologists Kari Ahola and Teuvo Karstinen and continued by me) and an experimental approach in my research.

My PhD (finished 2007) was about short- and long-term consequences of food resources on Ural owl reproduction (http://ethesis.helsinki.fi) with emphasis on experimental work on blood parasites as reproductive costs, and on the role of food resources for immune function and maternal transmission of immunity to offspring.Currently my post doc project (in a project led by Jon Brommer) is about tawny owl colour polymorphism and individual performance. In our study population there is survival selection on plumage coloration in tawny owls where individuals of the grey morph live longer and produce more recruits during their lifetime compared to the reddish brown morph (Brommer et al 2005, PRSLB). I am investigating how environmental variables, such as vole abundance and climatic variables affect survival of the morphs and I am conducting large scale field experiments to evaluate the role of avian malaria for differential survival of the morphs. I am also trying to shed light on inheritance of plumage coloration to understand why the frequency of colour morphs has not changed markedly during 25 years despite the observed selection pattern.

 

 

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