Postdoctoral Researcher

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Dr. Teddy Wilkin

Dr. Teddy Wilkin

Details

Name: Dr. Teddy Wilkin
Position: Postdoctoral researcher
Email: teddy.wilkin@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Autobiography

After 7 years as a Conservation Project Officer in the UK (BTCV), Australia (ATCV), Nepal (FCN) and USA (CCC), I eventually studied for a BSc in Zoology at East London and then an MSc in Ecology at Aberdeen. I joined the EGI in 2003 as a DPhil student looking at environmental effects on great tit life-histories at Wytham Woods, supervised by Ben Sheldon. In 2006 I began my first PostDoc, funded by NERC, looking at non-random natal dispersal and its effects on phenotypic structuring within wild populations. I am currently a Retained Lecturer in Environmental Biology at Pembroke College and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College.

Research Activities

Evolutionary divergence depends on the balance between the diversifying effect of selection and the homogenizing effect of dispersal. However, if dispersal is non-random then it may act to reinforce, rather than dilute divergence. Recent work by members of the EGI shows for the first time that non-random natal dispersal driven by differential habitat quality has, over time, led to genetic divergence between two sub-populations of Wytham great tits, with respect to body mass (Garant et al 2005).

Much of my current work aims to test the effects of non-random dispersal in a wild population by manipulating habitat and individual quality at Bagley Woods near Oxford. At Wytham we are embarking on an ambitious project which aims to track, with the use of RFID technology, the movements of large numbers of individuals between their sites of birth and where they eventually settle to breed.

I am also interested in the use of GIS to estimate territory size and habitat quality, and I co-supervise Amy Hinks, a DPhil student in the EGI who is looking at territory level temporal and spatial effects of caterpillar availability on great tit reproduction and fitness.

A digital terrain model of Wytham Woods showing the locations of 1168 nestboxes

A digital terrain model of Wytham Woods showing the locations of 1168 nestboxes (±3m).

Selected Recent Papers

Wilkin, T.A., King, L.E., & Sheldon, B.C. (2009) Habitat quality, nestling diet and provisioning behaviour in great tits. Journal of Avian Biology.

Wilkin, T.A., Gosler, A., Garant, D., Reynolds, S.J., & Sheldon, B.C. (2009) Calcium effects on life-history traits in a wild population of the great tit Parus major: analysis of long-term data at several spatial scales. Oecologia. Read abstract/paper online

Wood, M.J., Cosgrove, C.L., Wilkin, T.A., Knowles, S.C.L., Day, K.P., & Sheldon, B.C. (2007) Within-population variation in prevalence and lineage distribution of avian malaria in blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus. Molecular Ecology 16, 3263-3273. Read abstract/paper online

Wilkin, T. A., Perrins, C. M. & Sheldon, B. C. (2007). The use of GIS in estimating spatial variation in territory quality: a case study of lay-date in the Wytham Great Tit (Parus major). Ibis 149, 110-118. Read abstract/paper online

Wilkin, T. A., D. Garant, A. Gosler, & Sheldon, B. C. (2007) Edge effects on life-history traits in a wild population of the great tit Parus major: analyses of a long term data set with GIS techniques. Conservation Biology.| Read abstract/paper online

Jubb, M., Gosler, A. G. & Wilkin, T. A. (2006) Eggshell-pigmentation, soil calcium and the local abundance, distribution and diversity of woodland snails (Mollusca). Ardea. 94 (1), 1-12

Wilkin, T. A., Garant, D., Gosler, A. G. & Sheldon, B. C. (2006) Density effects on life-history traits in a wild population of the great tit Parus major: analyses of long-term data with GIS techniques. Journal of Animal Ecology. 75, 604-615. | Read abstract/paper online

Shapiro, J., Garant, D., Wilkin, T. A. & Sheldon, B. C. (2005) An experimental test of the causes of small-scale phenotypic differentiation in a population of great tits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 19, 176-183. | Read abstract/paper online

Garant, D., Kruuk, L.E.B., Wilkin, T.A., McCLeery, R.H. & Sheldon, B.C. (2005) Evolution driven by differential dispersal within a wild bird population. Nature. 433 (7021), 60-65. | Read abstract/paper online