Jaime Muriel

During the last few years, my studies have supported the importance of hormone-mediated maternal effects on individual phenotypic plasticity, which confirms the role of maternally derived androgens as modulators of life history trade-offs experienced by offspring. For this purpose, I have used as a study model the spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor).

My main line of research is maternal effects followed by host-parasite interactions immunocompetence and habitat selection (particularly in avian models). I am focused on the study of hormone-mediated maternal effects in the long term on reproduction, survival and phenotypic traits of offspring, as well as their transgenerational consequences. Generally, my main interests are evolutionary ecophysiology, behavioral ecology, adaptations to anthropic environments and wildlife conservation.

Bachelor's degree in Biology from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) in 2006. Before I finished my Bachelor's first cycle at the University of Cordoba (UCO), my interest in avian ecology led me to participate as a Student Assistant in the Department of Zoology studying the brood-parasitic interactions of the great spotted cuckoo (Clamator Glandarius) with Dr. Luis Arias de Reina and Dr. Pilar Recuerda. Then I made a transfer of my academic records to the UCM in order to continue my Bachelor´s second cycle specializing in Zoology, where I also participated as a Student Assistant in the Entomology Unit cataloging the entomological collection of Diptera (Insecta, Diptera) under the supervision of Dr. Dolores González Mora. In 2007, I conducted my degree dissertation in avian parasitology directed by Dr. Javier Pérez-Tris in the Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology at the UCM, where I studied the costs associated with multiple infections of avian malaria parasites, obtaining the highest rate (June 2008). That same year I had a 6-month fellowship under a research project in the Department of Ecology at the UCO, under the supervision of Dr. Don Juan Fernández-Haeger, aiming to study the distribution and reproduction of forest passerines in different Mediterranean habitats. I finished the official Master's degree in Conservation Biology in 2009, and that same year I started my Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology within the Official Postgraduate Program in Biology (UCM) thanks to a scholarship for the Training of Research Personnel (FPI), which was directed by Dr. Diego Gil and Dr. Lorenzo Pérez-Rodríguez at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), Madrid, Spain. I presented my doctoral thesis for defense in January 2016, entitled "Yolk androgens as modulators of life history trade-offs in the spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor)", obtaining the highest rate. Complementing my predoctoral training, I carried out two short-stays at the University of St Andrews (UK) under the supervision of Dr. Jeff Graves. After spending a few months in the UK (2016), I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Evolutionary Ecology at the MNCN-CSIC (2017). My last postdoc (May 2018-September 2019) was associated with Alfonso Marzal's team at the University of Extremadura to investigate the evolutionary ecology of avian malaria. I have just joined (Sep 2019) Jesús Martínez-Padilla's team at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (CSIC) to investigate how environmental conditions influence evolutionary dynamics of phenotypes in wild birds.