the Jolles Lab

From individual to collective behaviour across social and ecological scales

Menum

Skip to content
  • Home
  • News
  • Research
  • About me
  • CV
  • Publications
  • Public outreach
  • Instagram
  • Videos

Tag Archives: public engagement

JollesLab now on Instagram!

June 26th, 2019 / News Outreach

From today you can stay up to date about my research and get a glimpse into the life of a Behavioral Ecologist on my new instagram account: @jollewjolles!

Not only do I think it is great to provide the outside world a glimpse into the scientific process, I also really enjoy showing all the different components of my research, from catching fish and calibrating cameras to late night grant writing and attending conferences, that all together eventually culminate into my academic papers.

Tweet

Stand at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft

June 23rd, 2018 / News Outreach

Yesterday night we had the Konstanzer Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft, a whole evening where scientists present their work to the general public. I was excited to also participate this year and had a couple boards installed with posters and photos about my work, and a big screen that showcased collective moving stickleback shoals with the sophisticated tracking and processing we use projected on top.Read further…

Tweet

Awarded public engagement grant

November 21st, 2017 / Grant/award News

An important aspect of science is the dialogue with the general public. Most public outreach is however rather static, only focused on transferring knowledge, and quite uni-directional. I wanted to find a way to convey my research about collective animal behaviour in a format that people can engage with and appreciate.

An excellent opportunity for more interactive outreach is to bridge science with art. Not only may this lead to a better understanding of science by the general public and more appreciation about the hidden beauty of the world around us, it may also generate new ideas and perspectives about my own work.

I am excited to say that I have been awarded a Zukunftskolleg Intersectoral grant that enables me to set-up a professional collaboration with Toer, a Dutch design studio known for their curiosity-driven work and interactive art installations. This long-term program will bridge the disciplines of science, art, and technology with the aim to not only inform and educate the public about collective behaviour but to inspire and make science accessible in a playful way.

The project is called Under the surface, of which soon we will launch a brand new website at www.under-the-surface.com!

Tweet

Live with my sticklebacks on the Naked Scientists podcast

May 20th, 2015 / News Outreach

Unknown

Recently I was invited to participate in the latest episode of the fantastic Naked Scientists podcasts series to highlight why sticklebacks are the most incredible animal on the planet!

Colour-switching sticklebacks, geckos with enough adhesive power to hold up a human, bats with built-in sonar and moles with amazing noses – this week we go in search of the world’s most incredible animals. Scientists passionate about their species put their cases to our panel. But which animal will be crowned king?

To make clear to the radio audience why sticklebacks, perhaps ordinary looking fish to most, are actually an amazing animal species I brought along 10 fellow stickles and made them change colour over the time of the hour long interactive show! You can listen to the full podcast here or just listen to my part here where I also discuss a range of other cool abilities of this great little fish.

The Naked Scientists show was brilliantly hosted by Ginny Smith, had some amazing other speakers including Hannah Rowland, Corina Logan, Nick Crumpton, and Jade Cawthray, and also aired on BBC Radio 5.

naked-scientists-podcast-live

Tweet

Invited lecture at the Linnean Society

March 21st, 2015 / News Outreach Talk

sticklebacks-uncovered-talk-linnean-society

Last Wednesday I gave the Student Lecture at the Linnean Society in London. It was a great honour for me to be invited to talk at this wonderful society, which is the oldest active biological Society in the world!

linnean-society-logoMy hour-long lecture was mainly aimed at students with a general biological background. I therefore made a much broader talk about my work, which is a nice change from all the conference talks the last year.

stickleback-talk3

I talked about a range of things, from how I decided to be a scientists and what fascinates me in the natural world around me to why I study sticklebacks to study these questions and how to do behavioural experiments. I then discussed the various experiments I have done to investigate the role of animal personality in collective behaviour.

stickleback-talk2

It was great to see so many enthusiastic students with very bright questions at the end that hopefully got inspired by my talk to become zoologists themselves. My talk should become viewable online next week so check back soon!

stickleback-talk1

Tweet

Start of a new scientific youtube channel

July 4th, 2014 / News Outreach

I have recently started a youtube channel (here) to showcase my research projects and interests. As a scientist I believe it is important (and fun!) to engage with the public and make your work understandable to scientists and non-scientists alike. Not only because most science is ultimately payed by the tax payer, but also because one of the main goals of science is to learn more about our world and share this knowledge.

Next to publishing papers it is important to make these papers understandable so that this new knowledge can be appreciated and potentially be used by the general public. The aim with a new youtube channel is to show videos of different aspects of my experiments and projects but also of interesting aspects of social life of both human and non-human animals that reflect my research interests.

Today I would like to share a short video from a recent experiment that shows the successful tracking of five three-spined stickleback fish to investigate the role of animal personality on leadership and group movements.

By tracking the fish we can accurately (mm scale) determine each fish average position in the tank and calculate individual characteristics as well as social parameters for the group, such as group cohesion and leadership. In this particular situation fish 2 was the leader of the group.
Tweet

“What’s your personality” song!

June 12th, 2014 / Outreach

I am always looking for possibilities to combine my research interests with music, art or design. Luckily a couple months ago my two friends Jens Bouttery and Daan Milius, professional musician/composer and film makers, asked me to collaborate on a musical performance to explore the boundaries of music, science and art called “Triggers and Tresholds“.

We have had a couple very fruitful weekends in Cambridge during which we some great discussions about science and music and they filmed a couple shorts for the performance later this year. After their last visit here and seeing the sticklebacks and my research in my basement lab in Cambridge, Jens got very creative and within a day wrote a fantastic song about my research on animal personality! Listen to it below:

It is great to work together with good friends and see how my research is translated in such a creative way!

Tweet

Start of a scientific blog

May 31st, 2014 / Blog News

This is the first blog post on my academic website JolleJolles.com. Although I have already been running my own nature and science blog Mudfooted.com for the past four years, I felt a need for a more personal view on science and the academic world and really like to increase the engage more with the public about my own research!

New Blog!

This blog will present my personal view of interesting new findings from the behavioural ecology literature and beyond, additional information, photos and videos about my own research, and my personal opinions and experiences of academia. If you like to be amazed by our wonderful natural world and read about the most recent fascinating scientific discoveries, please go and visit my other blog Mudfooted.com!

Tweet

Latest news

2021
Dec 23rd
Created custom Google Scholar widget

Dec 15th
New preprint out on predation risk in schooling prey

Nov 15th
New grant submitted

Nov 11th
New paper out in Frontiers in Physiology

Oct 2nd
Paper submitted on jackdaw collective behaviour

Sep 15th
New paper out in Frontiers in Physics on variability in speed effects

Jul 23rd
New opinion paper out in TREE on fisheries effects on shoaling

Jun 30th
New preprint out on Open Electronics

Jun 24th
New paper out in MEE on potential of Raspberry Pi’s in biology

Jun 2nd
Grant awarded from the Spanish ministry

See all news...

About

I am a Severo Ochoa Postdoctoral Researcher at CREAF, Spain. Using an individual-based approach, I try to understand the role of individual heterogeneity in how animal groups form and function and deal with environmental change. Read more here!

Google Scholar

Instagram

jollethebiologist
@jollethebiologist
Follow
Building some new recording systems using Raspberry Pi's in the field in Ibiza with my collaborator Oriol Lapiedra and his team to study the native lizard species in their natural habitat. Its raining so a good time to tinker and finish building the electronics to take out tomorrow to film the lizards when the sun is out!
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
Building some new recording systems using Raspberry Pi's in the field in Ibiza with my collaborator Oriol Lapiedra and his team to study the native lizard species in their natural habitat. Its raining so a good time to tinker and finish building the electronics to take out tomorrow to film the lizards when the sun is out!
1 month ago
View on Instagram |
1/9
Science is teamwork. Today I worked all day with @polfe94 and @painting_with_saltwater on improving the big experimental setup that we use with dr Frederic Bartumeus at @ceabcsic to study the social behaviour of fish, ants and other animals at super high resolution (12x 4K) in our 4m2 arena. Next steps are to calibrate the cameras and finish the code to automatically synchronise, undistort, and stitch the videos!
#sciencelab #fishtank #animaltracking #teamwork #ecology #inthelab #severoochoa
Science is teamwork. Today I worked all day with @polfe94 and @painting_with_saltwater on improving the big experimental setup that we use with dr Frederic Bartumeus at @ceabcsic to study the social behaviour of fish, ants and other animals at super high resolution (12x 4K) in our 4m2 arena. Next steps are to calibrate the cameras and finish the code to automatically synchronise, undistort, and stitch the videos!
#sciencelab #fishtank #animaltracking #teamwork #ecology #inthelab #severoochoa
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
Science is teamwork. Today I worked all day with @polfe94 and @painting_with_saltwater on improving the big experimental setup that we use with dr Frederic Bartumeus at @ceabcsic to study the social behaviour of fish, ants and other animals at super high resolution (12x 4K) in our 4m2 arena. Next steps are to calibrate the cameras and finish the code to automatically synchronise, undistort, and stitch the videos! #sciencelab #fishtank #animaltracking #teamwork #ecology #inthelab #severoochoa
2 months ago
View on Instagram |
2/9
Working from home today, processing the videos of an experiments focused on understanding how individual fish explore different environments. For this I developed my own tracking software ATracker, which not only provides me with the coordinates of each fish's location in the tank but also their head and tail position and orientation in high spatial and temporal detail, enabling me to compute their movement characteristics and kinematics.
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
Working from home today, processing the videos of an experiments focused on understanding how individual fish explore different environments. For this I developed my own tracking software ATracker, which not only provides me with the coordinates of each fish's location in the tank but also their head and tail position and orientation in high spatial and temporal detail, enabling me to compute their movement characteristics and kinematics.
3 months ago
View on Instagram |
3/9
Besides the major challenges of severe droughts and floods that freshwater fish naturally experience in Mediterranean climates, which are increasing due to by human-induced climate change, humans also negatively impact the freshwater ecosystem directly in a number of ways. It makes me sad to see that, even though I try to focus my research on the most natural of streams, relatively far away from urbanisation, and the least impacted by humans, the human footprint is still there..
#underwater #garbage #humanimpact #trash #biodiversity #freshwaterecology #riverresearch #rius #polution
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
Besides the major challenges of severe droughts and floods that freshwater fish naturally experience in Mediterranean climates, which are increasing due to by human-induced climate change, humans also negatively impact the freshwater ecosystem directly in a number of ways. It makes me sad to see that, even though I try to focus my research on the most natural of streams, relatively far away from urbanisation, and the least impacted by humans, the human footprint is still there.. #underwater #garbage #humanimpact #trash #biodiversity #freshwaterecology #riverresearch #rius #polution
4 months ago
View on Instagram |
4/9
Exploring Catalunya's intermittent streams walking in waders upstream, you can experience how varied this ecosystem really is, from wide dried up riverbed, and lifeless open pools, to shallow meandering riffles, and permanent reaches covered by overhanging trees and sheltering roots below
#streamresearch #waders #natura_catalunya #naturalrivers #batecrius #fieldwork
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
Exploring Catalunya's intermittent streams walking in waders upstream, you can experience how varied this ecosystem really is, from wide dried up riverbed, and lifeless open pools, to shallow meandering riffles, and permanent reaches covered by overhanging trees and sheltering roots below #streamresearch #waders #natura_catalunya #naturalrivers #batecrius #fieldwork
4 months ago
View on Instagram |
5/9
While in the colder winter months most streams look devoid of animal life, if you look closer, you can see that there is often actually still much going on. This shallow refuge pool for example hosts a large number of small invertebrates known as ostracods, actively swimming around like small space ships, fuelled by the warmth of the sun. They are a favorite snack for many fish species, so the fact that they are so plentiful here likely suggests fish did not reach this refuge pool
#riverresearch #freshwaterecology #freshwaterstream #macrophotography #invertebrates #fishfood #naturalrivers #natura_catalunya #riuscatalans #catalunya_natura #aigua
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
While in the colder winter months most streams look devoid of animal life, if you look closer, you can see that there is often actually still much going on. This shallow refuge pool for example hosts a large number of small invertebrates known as ostracods, actively swimming around like small space ships, fuelled by the warmth of the sun. They are a favorite snack for many fish species, so the fact that they are so plentiful here likely suggests fish did not reach this refuge pool #riverresearch #freshwaterecology #freshwaterstream #macrophotography #invertebrates #fishfood #naturalrivers #natura_catalunya #riuscatalans #catalunya_natura #aigua
4 months ago
View on Instagram |
6/9
For some of my river surveys I snorkel to best monitor the different micro habitats and occurence of fish. Although it may look lush, the water is freezing cold (4-5 °c), and most fish are very inactive and hard to find, hidden deep in the river banks. Some of the stretches I snorkled were only 30-40cm deep but host an amazing varied aquascape of plants, pebbles, leaves and roots. It i's a whole different world that most people never even think about #riverresearch #riversnorkeling #freshwatersnorkling #fishsurvey #fieldbiology
For some of my river surveys I snorkel to best monitor the different micro habitats and occurence of fish. Although it may look lush, the water is freezing cold (4-5 °c), and most fish are very inactive and hard to find, hidden deep in the river banks. Some of the stretches I snorkled were only 30-40cm deep but host an amazing varied aquascape of plants, pebbles, leaves and roots. It i's a whole different world that most people never even think about
#riverresearch #riversnorkeling #freshwatersnorkling #fishsurvey #fieldbiology
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
For some of my river surveys I snorkel to best monitor the different micro habitats and occurence of fish. Although it may look lush, the water is freezing cold (4-5 °c), and most fish are very inactive and hard to find, hidden deep in the river banks. Some of the stretches I snorkled were only 30-40cm deep but host an amazing varied aquascape of plants, pebbles, leaves and roots. It i's a whole different world that most people never even think about #riverresearch #riversnorkeling #freshwatersnorkling #fishsurvey #fieldbiology
4 months ago
View on Instagram |
7/9
Back in the field, this time exploring the Daró, a highly intermittent stream in north-east Catalunya. For large stretches near the city of la Bisbal I found it to be dry, with here and there still a patch of water. But a bit further upstream there are some nice permanent pools such as this one with great underwater refuges for fish
#labisbal #riudaró #gavarres #natura_catalunya #riverresearch #naturalrivers #freshwaterecology #ecology #fieldwork
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
Back in the field, this time exploring the Daró, a highly intermittent stream in north-east Catalunya. For large stretches near the city of la Bisbal I found it to be dry, with here and there still a patch of water. But a bit further upstream there are some nice permanent pools such as this one with great underwater refuges for fish #labisbal #riudaró #gavarres #natura_catalunya #riverresearch #naturalrivers #freshwaterecology #ecology #fieldwork
4 months ago
View on Instagram |
8/9
Nice to be out in the field again! Spent the day exploring de Orlina in north-eastern Catalunya, a river I had not yet been before. While upstream the water was still flowing, further downstream where the riverbed was wider, the stream was dry and only some refuge pools remained. It has rained very little the last months so am interested to see how connectivity of the river changes after a couple days of rain. Unfortunately I did not see a single fish all day, but it could be some fish were there, hiding deep in the river margins. L'orlina is one of the nicer, still mostly natural, unaffected streams in the area and I found good habitats for three-spined sticklebacks, so am interested to go back soon to do some proper surveys
#fieldwork #freshwater #ecology #freshwaterstream #fieldsurvey #rius #riu #riuscatalans #mediambient #natura #aigua #catalunyaexperience #natura_catalunya #batecrius
Nice to be out in the field again! Spent the day exploring de Orlina in north-eastern Catalunya, a river I had not yet been before. While upstream the water was still flowing, further downstream where the riverbed was wider, the stream was dry and only some refuge pools remained. It has rained very little the last months so am interested to see how connectivity of the river changes after a couple days of rain. Unfortunately I did not see a single fish all day, but it could be some fish were there, hiding deep in the river margins. L'orlina is one of the nicer, still mostly natural, unaffected streams in the area and I found good habitats for three-spined sticklebacks, so am interested to go back soon to do some proper surveys
#fieldwork #freshwater #ecology #freshwaterstream #fieldsurvey #rius #riu #riuscatalans #mediambient #natura #aigua #catalunyaexperience #natura_catalunya #batecrius
Nice to be out in the field again! Spent the day exploring de Orlina in north-eastern Catalunya, a river I had not yet been before. While upstream the water was still flowing, further downstream where the riverbed was wider, the stream was dry and only some refuge pools remained. It has rained very little the last months so am interested to see how connectivity of the river changes after a couple days of rain. Unfortunately I did not see a single fish all day, but it could be some fish were there, hiding deep in the river margins. L'orlina is one of the nicer, still mostly natural, unaffected streams in the area and I found good habitats for three-spined sticklebacks, so am interested to go back soon to do some proper surveys
#fieldwork #freshwater #ecology #freshwaterstream #fieldsurvey #rius #riu #riuscatalans #mediambient #natura #aigua #catalunyaexperience #natura_catalunya #batecrius
Nice to be out in the field again! Spent the day exploring de Orlina in north-eastern Catalunya, a river I had not yet been before. While upstream the water was still flowing, further downstream where the riverbed was wider, the stream was dry and only some refuge pools remained. It has rained very little the last months so am interested to see how connectivity of the river changes after a couple days of rain. Unfortunately I did not see a single fish all day, but it could be some fish were there, hiding deep in the river margins. L'orlina is one of the nicer, still mostly natural, unaffected streams in the area and I found good habitats for three-spined sticklebacks, so am interested to go back soon to do some proper surveys
#fieldwork #freshwater #ecology #freshwaterstream #fieldsurvey #rius #riu #riuscatalans #mediambient #natura #aigua #catalunyaexperience #natura_catalunya #batecrius
Nice to be out in the field again! Spent the day exploring de Orlina in north-eastern Catalunya, a river I had not yet been before. While upstream the water was still flowing, further downstream where the riverbed was wider, the stream was dry and only some refuge pools remained. It has rained very little the last months so am interested to see how connectivity of the river changes after a couple days of rain. Unfortunately I did not see a single fish all day, but it could be some fish were there, hiding deep in the river margins. L'orlina is one of the nicer, still mostly natural, unaffected streams in the area and I found good habitats for three-spined sticklebacks, so am interested to go back soon to do some proper surveys
#fieldwork #freshwater #ecology #freshwaterstream #fieldsurvey #rius #riu #riuscatalans #mediambient #natura #aigua #catalunyaexperience #natura_catalunya #batecrius
jollethebiologist
jollethebiologist
•
Follow
Nice to be out in the field again! Spent the day exploring de Orlina in north-eastern Catalunya, a river I had not yet been before. While upstream the water was still flowing, further downstream where the riverbed was wider, the stream was dry and only some refuge pools remained. It has rained very little the last months so am interested to see how connectivity of the river changes after a couple days of rain. Unfortunately I did not see a single fish all day, but it could be some fish were there, hiding deep in the river margins. L'orlina is one of the nicer, still mostly natural, unaffected streams in the area and I found good habitats for three-spined sticklebacks, so am interested to go back soon to do some proper surveys #fieldwork #freshwater #ecology #freshwaterstream #fieldsurvey #rius #riu #riuscatalans #mediambient #natura #aigua #catalunyaexperience #natura_catalunya #batecrius
4 months ago
View on Instagram |
9/9

Twitter

Jolle W JollesFollow

Severo Ochoa postdoctoral researcher at CREAF, Barcelona, focused on the role of individual heterogeneity in animal groups across social and ecological scales

Jolle W Jolles
Retweet on TwitterJolle W Jolles Retweeted
AnimalEcologyJournal of Animal Ecology@AnimalEcology·
25 Apr

Seabird declines threatening coastal nutrient supply
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/april/seabird-declines-threatening-coastal-nutrient-supply

Retweet on TwitterJolle W Jolles Retweeted
ValeSbraValerio Sbragaglia@ValeSbra·
16 Apr

Our last #FishAndFisheries piece about digital recreational fisheries data. Led by @FisheriesRobert together with @kwvollset @LeneSortland
@LMcClenachan @IvanJaric @mlguckian @kenoferter
#AndyDanylchuk @SJC_fishy @RArlinghausFish @WTwardek

Happy Easter!
http://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12663

Load More...

New video

While snorkelling in the Bodensee, I found a large number of pikes stalking juvenile fish in the reeds along the shores. The pikes here can easily get 1m and are actually quite easy to approach to within 2m when quiet. Beautiful to see these hunters up close in the wild.

See all videos about our work...

Categories

  • Blog (24)
  • Coding (7)
  • Grant/award (13)
  • News (129)
  • Organisation (9)
  • Outreach (13)
  • Paper (24)
  • Talk (36)

Tags

animal personality art automation award blogging boldness Cambridge coding collaboration collective behaviour college conference corvids experiment fellowship fish individual heterogeneity invited Konstanz lab leadership news outreach paper parasitism PhD photo physiology poster project public engagement python R raspberry pi schooling speed stickleback sticklebacks student talk tracking tutorial video visit von humboldt

© Copyright 2016 - 2022 Jolle W Jolles.
the Jolles Lab