Lyanne Brouwer
- lyanne.brouwer@jcu.edu.au
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6728-4851- Lecturer, Zoology and Ecology
Projects
0
Publications
33
Awards
3
Biography
My interests are broad, but my core interest focuses on social behaviours of animals, and their behavioural adaptations to environmental change, like climate change and urbanization. My work uses approaches from the fields of behaviour, molecular ecology, genetics, and population and demographic modelling based on a thorough understanding of animals in the wild.
Research
Research Interests
- Cooperation and competition among relatives: Individuals in viscous populations (with limited dispersal) live in close proximity with kin, allowing for cooperation among relatives. However, living with relatives can also be costly because of the high risk of inbreeding and the fact that individuals compete with their own kin for space and resources. In 2008, I set-up a new field-based study system on cooperatively breeding red-winged fairy-wrens (Malurus elegans) in south-west WA. All 10 Australian fairy-wrens are cooperative breeders with males staying with their parents to help rear the next brood. In my study species females too stay at home, making this system very suitable to study both the costs and benefits of living with kin. This study has not only resulted in new insights on costs and benefits of group living, but also on some of the sophisticated behaviours that these birds show to avoid these. This study has become a long-term study which allowed us to investigate how changes in climate drives changes in fitness and is now also part of several global scale comparative/meta-analyses on the effects of e.g. climate change. Data from such populations as this one are particularly important, because long-term studies on southern hemisphere species are relatively scarce.
- Explaining inter- and intraspecific variation in behaviour and ecology: Comparing traits within and among species can be a powerful tool to get a better understanding of the variation that exists in the natural world. The fairy-wrens (genus Malurus) are an iconic model system in evolutionary ecology and one of the best-studied bird genera. A large-scale collaboration has resulted in detailed long-term data on 10 species from >20 populations from a single genus. This is an ideal system to investigate inter- and intraspecific variation in ecology and behaviour, without the problems encountered by many other systems where associations might be confounded by phylogeny. For example, we have completed the world’s first comprehensive test of many of the key ecological hypotheses concerning why individuals, populations and closely related species vary in their degree of promiscuity, tested the longstanding idea that conspicuous plumage increases predation risk, and several new projects are on the way. At a global scale, published data can be used for large scale comparative studies. For example, in recent work we combined data from >500 published studies of >300 bird species on promiscuous (extra-pair) mating to examine the patterns with respect to taxonomy, phylogeny and global regions and test the role of several life history and ecological variables.
- Effects of urbanization on social behaviour and population dynamics: Urbanization involves a drastic change of the environment and is considered one of the most important threats to biodiversity. Although there is lots of attention on how urbanization has affected behavioural changes, the effects on intra-specific behaviours like cooperation and competition has been neglected, despite its importance for fitness. In this EU funded project I use a citizen science approach, combined with new experiments to investigate the underlying mechanisms of changes in social behaviours and the long term population consequences due to urbanization.
- Examining space use and movement of endangered black-throated finches. We study the distribution, habitat use, spatial requirements and nesting ecology of the Southern Black-throated finch Poephila cincta cincta, an endangered species inhabiting the Townsville coastal plains. The generated knowledge will allow for prioritising specific areas for management actions (e.g. weeding, burning) to help conserve this endangered species.
Teaching
Taught Modules
2023
2022
[SC5502] Design and Analyses in Ecological StudiesCoordinator, Lecturer
2024
[BZ5061] Behavioural EcologyCoordinator, Lecturer
2024
[SC5502] Design and Analyses in Ecological StudiesCoordinator, Lecturer
2023
2024
[BZ3061] Behavioural EcologyCoordinator, Lecturer
2023
[BZ3061] Behavioural EcologyCoordinator, Lecturer
2024
2023
2024
[BZ5061] Behavioural EcologyCoordinator, Lecturer
2023
2023
2024
2021
2022
Current JCU Research Students
Intraspecific Variation in Climate Sensitivity: Evidence, Causes and Consequences
Doctor of Philosophy (Natural and Physical Sciences)
The role of social behaviour as a buffer to impacts of climate change: A field study in the red-winged fairywren (Malurus elegans).
Master of Philosophy (Natural and Physical Sciences)
Patterns, drivers, and consequences of pheromone variation in Australian gecko radiations.
Doctor of Philosophy (Natural and Physical Sciences)
Can parental care and breeding microhabitat protect montane nursery frogs from rising temperatures?;;
Doctor of Philosophy (Natural and Physical Sciences)
Activities
Associations
Awards
Rubicon fellowship
2008
Employment
Assistant Professor, Radboud University
2020 - 2021
ARC DECRA Fellow, Australian National University
2013 - 2017
Visiting Fellow, University of East Anglia
2007 - 2007
PhD, University of Groningen
2003 - 2007
Output
Halupka, Lucyna; Arlt, Debora; Tolvanen, Jere; Millon, Alexandre; Bize, Pierre; Adamík, Peter; Alber...
Rowe, Melissah; van Oort, Aaabel; Brouwer, Lyanne; Lifjeld, Jan T.; Webster, Michael S.; Welklin, Jo...
Pot, Morrison T.; Brouwer, Lyanne (2022) 'Facultative and persistent offspring sex-ratio bias in rel. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 76 (8). [DOI] ...
Culina, Antica; Brouwer, Lyanne (2022) 'No evidence of immediate fitness benefits of within-season d. Biology Letters, 18 (5). [DOI] ...
van de Pol, Martijn; Brouwer, Lyanne (2021) 'Cross-lags and the unbiased estimation of life-history . Journal of Animal Ecology, 90 (10):2234-2253. [DOI] ...
Colombelli-Négrel, Diane; Hauber, Mark E.; Evans, Christine; Katsis, Andrew C.; Brouwer, Lyanne; Adr...
Odom, Karan J.; Cain, Kristal E.; Hall, Michelle L.; Langmore, Naomi E.; Mulder, Raoul A.; Kleindorf...
Cockburn, Andrew; Peñalba, Joshua V.; Jaccoud, Damian; Kilian, Andrzej; Brouwer, Lyanne; Double, Mic...
de Villemereuil, Pierre; Charmantier, Anne; Arlt, Debora; Bize, Pierre; Brekke, Patricia; Brouwer, L...
Experimental vacancies do not induce settlement despite habitat saturation in a cooperative breeder
2020
Brouwer, Lyanne; Cockburn, Andrew (2020) 'Experimental vacancies do not induce settlement despite ha. Biology Letters, 16 (3). [DOI] ...
Brouwer, Lyanne; Cockburn, Andrew; van de Pol, Martijn (2020) 'Integrating fitness components reveal. American Naturalist, 195 (2):201-215. [DOI] ...
Lichtenauer, Wendy; van de Pol, Martijn; Cockburn, Andrew; Brouwer, Lyanne (2019) 'Indirect fitness . Evolution, 73 (3):467-48...
Conspicuous plumage does not increase predation risk: a continent-wide test using model songbirds
2019
Cain, Kristal E.; Hall, Michelle L.; Medina, Illiana; Leitao, Ana V.; Delhey, Kaspar; Brouwer, Lyann...
Brouwer, Lyanne; Griffith, Simon C. (2019) 'Extra-pair paternity in birds'. Molecular Ecology, 28 (22):4864-4882. [DOI] ...
MacLeod, K.J.; Brouwer, L. (2018) 'Social context-dependent provisioning rules in red-winged fairy-w. Animal Behaviour, 143 :105-111. [DOI] ...
Gardner, Janet L.; Rowley, Eleanor; de Rebeira, Perry; de Rebeira, Alma; Brouwer, Lyanne (2018) 'Ass. C,...
Brouwer, Lyanne; van de Pol, Martijn; Aranzamendi, Nataly Hidalgo; Bain, Glen; Baldassarre, Daniel T...
Rescue behaviour in a social bird: Removal of sticky 'bird-catcher tree' seeds by group members
2017
Hammers, Martijn; Brouwer, Lyanne (2017) 'Rescue behaviour in a social bird: Removal of sticky 'bird. Behaviour, 154 (4):403-411. [DOI] ...
Gardner, Janet L.; Rowley, Eleanor; De Rebeira, Perry; De Rebeira, Alma; Brouwer, Lyanne (2017) 'Eff. P,...
van de Pol, Martijn; Bailey, Liam D.; Mclean, Nina; Rijsdijk, Laurie; Lawson, Callum R.; Brouwer, Ly...
Male and female helper effects on maternal investment and adult survival in red-winged fairy-wrens
2016
Lejeune, Lea; van de Pol, Martijn; Cockburn, Andrew; Louter, Marina; Brouwer, Lyanne (2016) 'Male an. Behav, 27 ...
Wright, David J.; Brouwer, Lyanne; Mannarelli, Maria Elena; Burke, Terry; Komdeur, Jan; Richardson, ...
Habitat geometry does not affect levels of extrapair paternity in an extremely unfaithful fairy-wren
2014
Brouwer, Lyanne; van de Pol, Martijn; Cockburn, Andrew (2014) 'Habitat geometry does not affect leve. Behavioral Ecology, 25 (3):531-537. [DOI] ...
Brouwer, Lyanne; van de Pol, Martijn; Cockburn, Andrew (2014) 'The role of social environment on par. Journal of Animal Ecology, 83 :491-503. [DOI] ...
Cockburn, Andrew; Brouwer, Lyanne; Double, Michael C.; Margraf, Nicolas; van de Pol, Martijn (2013) ...
van de Pol, Martijn; Brouwer, Lyanne; Brooker, Lesley C.; Brooker, Michael G.; Colombelli-Négrel, Di...
Brouwer, Lyanne; van de Pol, Martijn; Atema, Els; Cockburn, Andrew (2011) 'Strategic promiscuity hel. Molecular Ecology, 20 (22):4796-4807. [ ...
van de Pol, Martijn; Ens, Bruno J.; Heg, Dik; Brouwer, Lyanne; Krol, Johan; Maier, Martin; Exo, Klau...
Brouwer, Lyanne; Barr, Iain; van de Pol, Martijn; Burke, Terry; Komdeur, Jan; Richardson, David S. (...
van de Pol, Martijn; Brouwer, Lyanne; Ens, Bruno J.; Oosterbeek, Kees; Tinbergen, Joost M. (2010) 'F. ...
van de Pol, Martijn; Ens, Bruno J.; Oosterbeek, Kees; Brouwer, Lyanne; Verhulst, Simon; Tinbergen, J...
van de Pol, M.; Brouwer, L.; Cockburn, A. (2020) R package hiphop: parentage assignment using bi-all. [Recorded Work] ...
Cockburn, Andrew; Brouwer, Lyanne; Margraf, Nicolas; Osmond, Helen L.; van de Pol, Martijn (2016) 'S I...