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VENI research fellow – Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
Based at the University of Groningen
Martijn's research focused on the relationship between cooperative breeding behaviour and ageing patterns in the Seychelles warbler. Breeders who are assisted by helpers do not need to invest as much in parenting as breeders that do not receive help.
He investigated whether receiving help delays the onset and rate of senescence in breeders using a combination of fitness-, behavioural-, and physiological data. In addition, Martijn tested how the fitness benefits of breeding cooperatively change with age of the breeders, both from the perspective of the breeders as well as from the helpers’ perspective.
Selected publications:
Hammers, M., Kingma, S.A., Bebbington, K., van de Crommenacker, J., Spurgin, L.G., Richardson, D.S., Burke, T., Dugdale, H.L. and Komdeur, J. Senescence in the wild: insights from a long-term study on Seychelles warblers. Experimental Gerontology (71, 2015, 69-79)
Hammers, M., Richardson, D. S., Burke, T., and Komdeur, J. The impact of reproductive investment and early‐life environmental conditions on senescence: support for the disposable soma hypothesis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology (26, 2013, 1999-2007)
Hammers, M., Komdeur, J., Kingma, S.A., Hutchings, K., Fairfield, E.A., Gilroy, D.L. and Richardson, D.S. Age-specific haemosporidian infection dynamics and survival in Seychelles warblers. Scientific Reports (6, 2016, 29720)
Hammers, M., Richardson, D.S., Burke, T. and Komdeur J. Age-dependent terminal declines in reproductive output in a wild bird. PLoS ONE (7, 2012, e40413)
Barrett, E.L.B., Burke, T., Hammers, M., Komdeur, J. and Richardson, D.S. Telomere length and dynamics predict mortality in a wild longitudinal study. Molecular Ecology (22, 2013, 249-259)
Kingma, S. A., Bebbington, K., Hammers, M., Richardson, D. S. and Komdeur, J. (2016), Delayed dispersal and the costs and benefits of different routes to independent breeding in a cooperatively breeding bird. Evolution (70, 2016, 2595–2610)
Kingma, S.A., Komdeur, J., Hammers, M. and Richardson, D.S. Biol. Lett. (12, 2016, 20160316) doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0316.
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