Rapidly changing environmental conditions prove to be challenging for many species. Flexibility and plasticity, together with selection may provide a rescue for certain species. Partially migratory populations (i.e. populations that include both migratory and resident individuals) represent a dynamic system that allows us to study the direct effects of different variables on the microevolution of this complex trait, aiding adaptations to new environmental conditions.

We use ringing recovery analyses to characterise general patterns of migratory variability in a spatiotemporal context, and combine these data with individually characterised migratory behaviour in the wild by means of light-level geolocator technology and radiotelemetry within the MOTUS framework. Specifically, we study a partially migratory population of European robins in Northern Germany and track their whole annual cycle through individual marking as well as radiotracking and geolocator deployment, and combine these individual phenotypes with variation in genotype. We observe vast differences in phenotype expression between years. This change in phenotype distribution could be due to plasticity (e.g. reacting to warmer temperatures) or through selection against a particular phenotype. This study was initiated in 2021 and long-term data will allow us to entangle the effects of plasticity and selection in the robin, as well as its capacity to adapt to new conditions.

This project is part of the SFB 1372 Magnetoreception and Navigation in Vertebrates and the reference genome was assembled together with the Wellcome Sanger Institute to celebrate its 25^th Anniversary (they compiled this little video with a little more background info on our work).