Tamara Volkmer
Main Focus
Despite our growing knowledge of animal migration, most of what juveniles experience in their first year of life for many species remains a mystery. Connecting the juvenile and adult life stage can provide insight into how individual and population level strategies evolve and are maintained in response to cues in changing environments. Fine temporal and spatial resolution data are required to study individual movement in the environment it experiences and technological advancements in animal tracking such as ICARUS will allow us to document these movements.
My research will focus on analyzing patterns of movement between juvenile individuals of European Blackbirds from different populations across Europe with varying migratory strategies. We aim to understand how individuals exhibiting different life histories respond to environmental cues during their first year of life, and how they strategize their dispersal and/or migration in response to these cues.
Curriculum Vitae
10/2018 - to date: PhD Student at MPI of Animal Behaviour, Department of Migration, Radolfzell, Germany
09/2018: MSc in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Graz, Austria
04/2015: BSc in Biology, University of Graz, Austria
Work and Field Experience
06 - 09/2016 & 08 - 09/2017: Field Assistant in the Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Migration Lab, Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany
10/2016 - 02/2017: Internship at the bird collection/depot of the Universalmuseum Joanneum Graz, Austria
03 - 05/2015: Internship as an animal care taker/research assistant in the Wolf lab, Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, Sweden
2013 - 2016: Field work to investigate the population size of the snake Natrix tesselata in the urban region of Graz, Advocate for environment Styria, Austria
2013 - 2015: Avian field technician at BfN (Consulting engineers in biology), Austria
2012 - 2016: Field technician at ÖkoTeam (Consulting engineers in biology), field work on birds, mammals, insects and snails, Austria
Teaching and workshops
2014 - 2015: Undergraduate teaching assistant, Lecture native fauna, University of Graz, Austria
05/2014: Ornithological seminar and field excursion, URANIA (adult educational institution), Graz, Austria
2013 – 2017: Guide for different field excursions with 5 to 16-year-old children, ÖNJ Steiermark (Austrian youth conservation of nature), Austria
Scholarships and Grants
2017: Grant for Short-Term Mobility (KUWI), University of Graz (for 4 Months field work in Mexico)
2017: Research scholarship “Förderungsstipendium”, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Graz (for 4 Months field work in Mexico)
2018: Merit-based scholarship “Leistungsstipendium”, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Graz (Master’s degree)