Eiders (Somateria mollissima ) constitute an important link between the marine and terrestrial ecosystem, and trends in their abundance may reflect the environmental status of the Baltic Sea. Eiders in the Baltic Sea are currently in grave peril: predation pressure is rapidly increasing following the rapid recovery of a top predator, the white-tailed eagle, and increasing invasive alien predator populations. On top of this, the availability of the main prey, blue mussels, is threatened by the effects of climate change. Assessing the adaptive potential of eiders to cope with these challenges is therefore a key research priority.
We address this question in a long-studied (30+ yrs) population of eider ducks from the Tvärminne archipelago, SW Finland. We focus on antipredator adaptations associated with female cooperation during brood care, the role of individual variation in cognitive and personality traits and its life-history consequences, the causes and consequences of nest-site selection, and physiological stress adaptation mechanisms.
The goal is to predict which individuals – and in which environments – will experience the strongest responses to the ongoing rapid environmental change facing the Baltic Sea. Our ultimate hope is to find new solutions for halting the current population decline.
Researchers: Markus Öst (Åbo Akademi), Kim Jaatinen (Finnish Environment Institute), Bertille Mohring (University of Liverpool, UK), Ida Hermansson (Åbo Akademi and Tvärminne Zoological Station) and partners from the USA, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France and Norway.
Ants are ubiquitous, fascinating and an integral part of terrestrial ecosystems. Research on evolution, genetics, behaviour and ecology of ants has been carried out at TZS for decades, resulting in textbook examples and unique long-term data on how social evolution works. The populations of Formica exsecta on the islands outside the station have been closely monitored since the early 90s and are one of the best studied ant populations in the world, shedding light on how inbreeding and habitat fragmentation affect populations. Current research is very diverse and combines field studies with experiments and modern genetic and genomic methods.
We study social organization and speciation in Formica ants – the mound building wood ants and their relatives – and red Myrmica ants. Why do some nests have many queens and some only one? Why do some queens disperse from their nests, and some stay home? Which genes underlie social polymorphism and speciation? These studies help us to understand how evolution works to produce individuals with different social strategies and eventually new species, and how behavioral decisions at the individual level have far reaching consequences on populations and species.
We also study how ants deal with pathogens. We have shown that ants medicate themselves when challenged with pathogens, and current research aims to solve the diverse consequences of infections, from physiological responses to behavioural changes to dynamics of the multi-species interactions between ants, aphids and plants! Discoveries on the pathogen defenses of ants also have relevance to health of pollinators such as honeybees.
Researchers: Heikki Helanterä (University of Oulu), Dalial Freitak (University of Graz, Austria), Jonna Kulmuni (University of Amsterdam) and collaborators from Finland, Sweden and the UK.