Current Member - Dr. Adele Mennerat

Dr. Adele Mennerat

Details

Name: Dr. Adele Mennerat
Position: Marie Curie Fellow
Email: adele.mennerat@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Autobiography

I graduated from both the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and the Université de Montpellier (France) after completing an undergraduate degree combining both molecular biology and evolutionary ecology. After spending 7 months as an exchange student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Uppsala (Sweden), I started a Masters project on the use of olfaction in the Blue tit, Cyanistes cæruleus, which I completed in 2004. I then undertook a PhD project at the Centre d?Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE) in Montpellier, France, where I studied the use of aromatic plants in Blue Tits from Corsica and explored the fitness consequences of this behaviour, under the supervision of Marcel M. Lambrechts and Philip Heeb (Université de Toulouse, France). I defended my thesis in 2008. I then spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Bergen, Norway, working on a project led by Arne Skorping and in collaboration with Frank Nilsen (University of Bergen) and Dieter Ebert (University of Basel, Switzerland). The project, still ongoing, aims at testing to what extent the life history and virulence of the salmon louse, Lepeophteirus salmonis, have evolved in response to ecological changes introduced by intensive salmon farming. I have just started at the EGI as a Marie Curie fellow and will spend the next two years working on the transmission of parasites and bacteria in social networks, in collaboration with Ben Sheldon and his group.

Research Activities

I am mostly interested in host-parasite relationships, both from a behavioural and an evolutionary perspective. During my PhD work I focused on the evolutionary ecology of host antiparasite behaviours. Trying to understand why and how Blue Tits add aromatic plants to their nests, I specifically investigated the antiparasite and antibacterial effects of those plants by field manipulations. I then gained valuable experience in the study of bacterial communities carried by wild birds. During my post-doctoral stay in Bergen I have been interested in the evolution of life history and virulence of parasites. My new project here lies at the interface between the study of host behaviour, as explored using a social network approach, and parasite transmission.

Other information

Popular science articles on my PhD work:

Natural History Magazine: Freshening up the nest.

BBC`s report on Earth News: Blue tits embrace aromatherapy.

My former webpage: http://www.uib.no/persons/Adele.Mennerat#profil

Selected Recent Papers

Mennerat, A., Hamre, L., Nilsen, F., Ebert, D., Davidova, M. and Skorping, A. 2012. Life history and virulence are linked in the ectoparasitic salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, in press

Mennerat, A., Nilsen, F., Ebert, D. and Skorping, A. 2010. Intensive farming: evolutionary implications for parasites and pathogens. Evolutionary Biology 37 (2-3), 59-67

Mennerat, A., Mirleau, P., Blondel, J., Perret, P., Lambrechts, M.M. and Heeb, P. 2009. Aromatic plants in nests of the blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus protect chicks from bacteria. Oecologia 161: 849-855

Mennerat, A., Perret, P. & Lambrechts, M.M. 2009. Local individual preferences for nesting materials in a passerine bird. PLoS ONE 4(4) e5104.

Mennerat, A., Perret, P., Bourgault, P., Blondel, J., Gimenez, O., Thomas, D.W., Heeb, P. & Lambrechts, M.M. 2009. Aromatic plants in nests of blue tits: positive effects on nestlings. Animal Behaviour 77: 569-574

Mennerat, A., 2008. Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) respond to an experimental change in the aromatic plant odour composition of their nest. Behavioural Processes 79, 189-191

Mennerat, A., Perret, P., Caro, S.P., Heeb, P. & Lambrechts, M.M. 2008. Aromatic plants in blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus nests: no negative effect on blood-sucking Protocalliphora blow fly larvae. Journal of Avian Biology 39, 127-132

Mennerat, A., Bonadonna, F., Perret, P. & Lambrechts, M.M. 2005. Olfactory conditioning experiments in a food-searching passerine bird in semi-natural conditions. Behavioural Processes 70, 264-270