Colonists – Who Are They? Demographic, behavioural, hormonal, and genetic aspects of animal colonization: a case study of the Midday Gerbil (Meriones meridianus) in Kalmykia
Animals rarely stay in one place. They disperse, migrate, colonize new territories, and expand their geographic ranges. But who are these colonists? How do they differ from the residents of long-established populations? Where do they come from, and what determines their success in establishing new populations?
These questions lie at the heart of one of the fastest-growing fields in modern ecology and evolutionary biology. Do colonizing populations differ from their source populations in demographic structure or genetic diversity? What evolutionary processes accompany colonization? Are colonists behaviourally bolder, physiologically different, or less burdened by parasites than the residents they leave behind?
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Various types of population dynamics. Why do they replace each other? What is the role of global warming in this process? Dynamics of the community of small mammals and the populations included in them. How do these processes relate?
PI: Sheftel Boris
English annotation (in process)
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PI: Suntsov Victor
English annotation (in process)
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Personality in yellow ground squirrel: the variety of life strategies and pace-of-life syndrome
PI: Vasilieva Nina
The dynamics of demographic structure and ectoparasite load in the colonizing population of the midday gerbil expanding its range
Understanding how organisms colonize new areas during range expansion has become a major focus of
ecological and evolutionary research over the past two decades. Theory predicts that newly established
colonizing populations should differ from their source populations in their demographic, life-history, and
ecological characteristics. However, empirical evidence remains surprisingly limited. Most studies
compare colonizing and source populations at a single point in time, overlooking the fact that
colonization is a dynamic process in which population characteristics may change substantially over
successive generations.
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