Christoph Meier

Contact

Function

Expertise

Current Projects

Migration ecology of the alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba)

• Investigating the annual cycle of this species (determining staging sites, non-breeding sites, and migratory schedule)
• Which factors affect the individual variation in migration strategies?
  • weather along the migration route and at the breeding ground
  • individual brood performance
  • population dynamic at the breeding site
  • genetic variation between individuals
• How do migration strategies differ between populations?

Migration ecology of the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)

• Localisation of the non-breeding sites and stop-over sites for the alpine wheatear population
• Identifying temporal constrains in the migration schedule for individuals breeding at different altitudes
• Understanding the costs of maladapted timing of migration

Co-operations

• Dr. Pavel Zehtindjiev, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
• Dr. Raül Aymí, Institut Català d'Ornitologia, Barcelona, Spain
• Dr. Hakan Karaardiҫ, Biyoloji Bölümü, Akdeniz Üniversitesi, Antalya, Turkey
• Dr. Heiko Schmaljohan, Institute of Avian Research, “Vogelwarte Helgoland” Wilhelmshaven, Germany
• Dr. Debora Arlt, Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Science – SLU, Sweden
• Willem Witvliet, Broek op Langedijk, Niederlande

Other

Languages: German, English, (Finnish)
Programming: R, Matlab

CV

2013 –	Post-doc at the Swiss Ornithological Institute, Department migration research
2012 – 2013	Internship at the department for construction of Kanton Zürich, division for nature conservation
2007 – 2012	PhD in evolutionary ecology at the University of Helsinki, Finland with Prof. Dr. Hanna Kokko, University of Helsinki, Finland and Prof. Dr. Dries Bonte, University of Ghent, Belgium on “The consequences of spatial environmental variability on dispersal and on the spatial distribution of species”
2006	Assistant at Zoological Museum of the University of Zurich, planning a special exhibit on Alpine Ibex
2005 – 2006	MSc in Zoology at the University of Zurich with Prof. Dr. Lukas Keller, Zoological Museum, University of Zurich on “Can anthelminthic resistance in gastrointestinal parasites spread across host species?”
2000 – 2004	Undergraduate studies at the University of Zurich, main degree Zoology, secondary systematics of botany

Publications

• Schmaljohann H., Meier C. M., Arlt D., Bairlein F., van Oosten H., Morbey Y.E., Åkesson S., Buchmann M., Chernetsov N., Desaever R., Elliott J., Hellström M, Liechti F. López A., Middleton J., Ottosson U., Pärt T., Spina F., Eikenaar C. 2015, Proximate causes of avian protandry differ between subspecies with contrasting migration challenges. Behavioral Ecology. 00(00), 1–11. doi:10.1093/beheco/arv160
• Meier C. M., Bonte D., Kaitala A., Ovaskainen O. The invasion speed of the ectoparasite deer ked is modified by spatio-temporally varying host density. Bulletin of Entomological Research. Bulletin of Entomological Research, 104(3) 314-322 doi:10.1017/S0007485314000042.
• Bonte D., Van Dyck H., Bullock J., Coulon A., Delgado M., Gibbs M., Lehouck V., Matthysen E., Mustin K., Saastamoinen M., Schtickzelle N., Stevens V., Vandewoestijne S., Baguette M., Barton K., Benton T., Clobert J., Dytham C., Hovestadt T., Meier C.M., Palmer S. C. F., Turlure C. and J.M.J. Travis. 2012. Cost of dispersal. Biological Reviews. 87(2) 290-312. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2011.00201.x
• Meier C.M.,Starrfelt J., Hanna K., 2011, Mate limitation causes sexes to coevolve towards more similar dispersal kernels. Oikos. 120: 1459-1468
• Blanckenhorn, W.U., Birrer, M., Meier, C.M., Reim, C., Teuschl, Y., Weibel, D. 2008. Size-dependent mating success at various nutritional states in the yellow dung fly. Ethology. 114:752-759