APPLICATION FOR STUDENT AWARDS

COS/AOU/SCO 2010 Meeting (San Diego, CA, 7-11 February 2010)

THIS COVERSHEET SHOULD ACCOMPANY OTHER APPLICATION MATERIALS
APPLICANT INFORMATION
NAME Sophie Jaquier
E-MAIL ADDRESS sjaquier@mix.wvu.edu
INSTITUTION West Virginia University
MAILING ADDRESS 322 Percival Hall
Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA

MEMBER OF WHICH AOU

SOCIETIES? (COS, AOU, SCO)
STATUS (Post-doc, PhD, MS, PhD student
undergrad)*
EXPECTED GRADUATION (yr) 2012
*Students graduating within one year of last meeting are eligible

APPLYING FOR WHICH AWARD(S)?

X TRAVEL AWARD
X PRESENTATION AWARD (Other than Young Professional Award)
COS YOUNG PROFESSIONAL AWARD
CHECK ONLY ONE PRESENTATION BOX; NON-FINALISTS FOR YOUNG
PROFESSIONAL AWARD WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE CONSIDERED FOR
OTHER PRESENTATION AWARDS

PRESENTATION TYPE (Talk or Poster): poster

Have you received a travel award from one of the participating societies in the past?
(Please explain briefly.) no

ANTICIPATED TRAVEL EXPENSES (For travel award applications)

TRAVELING FROM: Morgantown, West Virginia
EXPECTED COST*: $600
*Transportation only – excluding meals, lodging and registration costs.

OTHER COMMENTS: expected cost includes bus to and from Pittsburgh and plane
tickets Pittsburgh-San Diego and back.

SOPHIE JAQUIER - CURRICULUM VITAE

Nationality Swiss
Date of birth 16.01.1982
Address 614 Community Dr., Morgantown, WV, USA
E-mail sjaquier@mix.wvu.edu

AOU member since September 2009.

Education

2001-2007 Master´s degree in biology ● Westfaelische Wilhelms University of Muenster, Germany

and University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Work experience

2009 Graduate Research Assistant ● West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA

2008-2009 Technical Assistant ● Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany

Biologist ● GEG Grande Caricaie, Switzerland

2003-2005 Zoological/Ornithological Teaching Assistant ● University of Muenster, Germany

Volunteer experience

2007, 2008 Volunteer Field Biologist ● Long Point Bird Observatory, Canada

2005 Ornithological Intern ● Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany

2001-2006 Bird Bander ● Vogelwarte Helgoland, Germany

2000-2001 Ornithological Intern ● Vogelwarte Helgoland bird banding station, Germany

Publications

Anthes, N., HH Bergmann, A Hegemann, S Jaquier, JO Kriegs, SW Pyzhjanov & H Schielzeth (2004):
Waterbird phenology and opportunistic acceptance of a low quality wader staging site at Lake Baikal, eastern
Siberia. Wader Study Group Bulletin 105:75-83

Grants and Awards

2007 Grant for EGI Conference, 100 Euro, Awarded by University of Groningen

2004 Winnder Marine Biology Award of the Verband Deutscher Sporttaucher (VdST) with the
student field course “Coral Reef Ecology” at El Quseir, Egypt, Red Sea

2002 Grant for Lake Baikal excursion, 600 Euro, awarded by the Deutscher Akademischer
Austausch Dienst (DAAD)

Personal skills

Fluent in French (mother tongue), German and English

Interests

Birdwatching, bird banding, French literature, languages, diving, running

VARIATION IN THE IMMUNE FUNCTION OF LARKS FROM MESIC AND ARID

ENVIRONMENTS. S. Jaquier, West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; B. I.

Tieleman, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Haren, The Netherlands.

One of the most fundamental trade-offs in the life-history evolution is the inverse relationship

between the reproductive success and the adult survival. Most of the life-history variation

falls on a slow-fast continuum, with high reproduction rates, fast developments and short life-

spans at one end and the opposite traits at the other end (1).

Living in environments ranging from hyperarid deserts to arctic habitats, the lark family

(Alaudidae) members also differ in their life-history strategies. Larks from arid habitats live at

a slower pace-of-life, and seem to invest more in adult survival and less in current

reproduction than their mesic relatives (2). The immune system plays an important role in an

individual’s survival, and there are costs in terms of nutrients and energy associated with the

development, maintenance and use of its different parts (3, 4). In this study, we hypothesized

that birds from arid and mesic environments, with different adult survivals, might also differ

in their investment in innate immune defenses. We assessed the innate immunity of two lark

species from the temperate Netherlands and five species from the Saudi Arabian desert, using

a bacteria killing assay (5, 6) and an hemagglutination/hemolysis assay (7). In the killing

assay, the mesic larks eliminated the pathogenic bacteria C. albicans from their blood with

higher efficiency than the desert larks did (Figure 1; ANOVA, F =9,830, p =0,026).

Exogenous red blood cells were lysed significanty better by the Dutch larks’ blood than by

that of their desert relatives in the hemagglutination/hemolysis assay (Figure 2; for lysis:

ANOVA, F =20,779, p =0,006). These results possibly reflect differences in pathogen

prevalence in these 2 environments, or differences in the investment that these birds put into

the use of these parts their innate immunity. Mesic birds with faster pace-of-lives might invest

more in immediate survival enhencment, even at the greater costs that represent the use of the
innate immunity, whereas longer-lived birds might benefit longer of a greater investment in

the acquired immunity, which is costly to develop but “cheaper” to use. they simply reflect

differences in pathogen prevalence in these 2 environments.

References:

1. Ricklefs R. E. and M. Wikelski (2002). The physiology/life-history nexus. Trends

Ecol. Evol. 14, 462-467

2. Tieleman B. I. et al. (2003). Variation in allocation of time, water and energy in

Hoopoe Larks from the Arabian Desert. Func Ecol 17, 869-876

3. Klasing K. C. (2004). The costs of immunity. Acta Zool. Sin. 50(6):961-969.

4. Lochmiller R.L. and C. Deerenberg (2000). Trade-offs in evolutionary immunology:

just what is the cost of immunity? OIKOS 88, 87-98

5. Matson K. D. et al. (2006). The bactericidal competence of blood and plasma in five

species of tropical birds. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 79:556–564.

6. Tieleman, B. I. et al. (2005). Constitutive innate immunity is a component of the pace-

of-life syndrome in tropical birds. Proc. R. Soc. 272, 1715-1720

7. Matson K. D. et al. (2004). A hemolysis-hemagglutination assay for characterizing

constitutive innate humoral immunity in wild and domestic birds. Devel. And Comp.

Immunol. 29, 275-286

Figures:

Figure 1: Killing ability of the desert (SA) and mesic (NL) lark species on C. albicans.

ANOVA, F =9,830, p =0,026

Figure 2: Exogenous red blood cells lysis for the desert (SA) and the mesic (NL) lark species.

ANOVA, F =20,779, p =0,006.