Postdoctoral Fellow
Research group | Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES)
Main supervisor | Mark Ravinet
Co-supervisor | Kjetill S. Jakobsen
Affiliation | Department of Biosciences, UiO
Contact | blancaji@ibv.uio.no
Short bio
My research trajectory has been characterized by a high mobility and internationalization. After doing my bachelor (Biology) and Master studies (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) in Spain, I did my PhD in The Netherlands (University of Groningen). As a postdoc, I have worked in the US (University of Montana), Spain (IREC-CSIC and IPE-CSIC), and now Norway.
Research interests and hobbies
My main research interest is developing interdisciplinary approaches to investigate the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying organismal responses to environmental change. My research is deeply characterized by its interdisciplinarity, merging behavioural ecology, evolutionary biology and molecular ecology. I have performed experimental and observational studies, in both field and lab, using birds as study species.
Throughout my research trajectory, my work and research interests have evolved across complexity scales and approaches: from the descriptive study of behavioral patterns in the very first stages of my career, through endocrine dynamics and energy metabolism during my PhD, down to epigenetics and transcriptomics during my postdoc years.
Outside of research, I enjoy having long walks in the city or the countryside, travelling, listening to music, or spending quality time with friends and family.
DSTrain project
Epigenetic potential and avian dispersal propensity in the face of global environmental change
In an increasingly changing world, organisms need to adjust to environmental fluctuations and maximize survival and reproduction in the face of this variability. Dispersal is the movement from the native habitat to another - either temporarily or for reproduction - and a highly relevant trait that will determine individual prospects, population dynamics and species distributions. Although not all species are equally likely to disperse, the mechanisms driving variation in dispersal behaviour remain poorly understood. Epigenetic mechanisms – changes in gene expression that do not involve changes in the genetic sequence – enable rapid and plastic phenotypic responses, and genomes may differ in their capacity to respond epigenetically – i.e. epigenetic potential. A high capacity to respond to environmental cues and do so rapidly may be a requirement for species to successfully settle in novel environments, and I predict that species with higher dispersal propensity will show greater epigenetic potential. Using ecological and evolutionary big data, I will test this association at broad spatial and temporal scales. I will examine genomic and ecological datasets on bird species differing in ecology and dispersal behaviour, and scale it up to global patterns of species distribution and responses to anthropic change. EPICMOVES will provide ecological and molecular insights of dispersal behaviour, a key step towards predicting species responses in the face of anthropic changes.
Publications
DSTrain publications
Previous publications
(last 5 years)
McCain, KM., Mansilla, G., Sheldon, EL., Zimmer, C., Schrey, AW., Rowe, M., Dor, R., Kohl, KD. S?raker, JS., Jensen, H., Mathot, KJ., Vu, T., Phuong, HT., Jimeno, B., Buchanan, KL., Thiam, M., Briskie, J. & Martin, LB. (2025) Microbial surveillance versus cytokine responsiveness in native and non-native house sparrows. Biology Letters 21 (1), 20240431
Jimeno, B., Tangili, M., Domínguez, JC., Canal, D., Camacho, C., Potti, J., García, JT., Martínez-Padilla, J. & Ravinet, M. (2024). Epigenetic potential and dispersal propensity in a free-living songbird: a spatial and temporal approach. bioRxiv, 2024.11. 07.622405.
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Millanes, PM., Pérez-Rodríguez, L., Rubalcaba, J.G., Gil, D. & Jimeno, B (2024). Corticosterone and glucose are correlated and show similar response patterns to temperature and stress in a free-living bird. Journal of Experimental Biology 227 (14).
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Jimeno, B. & Rubalcaba, JG. Modelling the role of glucocorticoid receptor as mediator of endocrine responses to environmental challenge. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B379 (1898), 20220501. Invited contribution.
Zimmer, C.,