Dr Jelle Boonekamp

  • Lecturer (Physiology Ageing & Welfare)

Biography

2008 – 2009        University of Wageningen (lecturer)

2009 – 2013        University of Groningen (PhD)

2014 – 2016        GELIFES University of Groningen (Post-doc)

2017 – 2018        TRES University of Groningen (Post-doc)

2018 – 2020        CEC University of Exeter (Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow)

2020 – present    SBOHVM University of Glasgow (lecturer)

Research interests

My research focusses on understanding the ultimate (evolutionary) and proximate (physiological) causes of senescence. I use birds and insects as study systems to investigate candidate mechanisms of ageing such as oxidative stress and telomere attrition. My research uses a combination of experimental approaches in the lab and in the wild to investigate causal relationships, and quantitative genetic approaches to estimate selection, heritability, and evolution. In the context of evolution and local adaptation I am also interested in pathways of non-genetic inheritance, such as inter- and transgenerational epigenetic effects based on the work of Waddington.

For more info see  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jelle_Boonekamp

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2008
Number of items: 31.

2025

Pitt, M. D., Alhowiti, N. S. S., Branston, C. J. , Carlon, E., Boonekamp, J. , Dominoni, D. and Capilla Lasheras, P. (2025) Environmental constraints can explain clutch size differences between urban and forest blue tits: insights from an egg removal experiment. Journal of Animal Ecology, 94(3), pp. 368-378. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.14171) (PMID:39219149) (PMCID:PMC11880655)

2024

Reid, R., Capilla-Lasheras, P. , Haddou, Y., Boonekamp, J. and Dominoni, D. (2024) The impact of urbanisation on health depends on the health metric, life stage and level of urbanisation: a global meta-analysis on avian species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2027), 20240617. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0617) (PMID:39016598) (PMCID:PMC11253839)

2023

Badás, E. P., Bauch, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2023) Ectoparasite presence and brood size manipulation interact to accelerate telomere shortening in nestling jackdaws. Molecular Ecology, 32(24), pp. 6913-6923. (doi: 10.1111/mec.17177) (PMID:37864481)

Lodjak, J., Boonekamp, J. , Lendvai, Á. Z. and Verhulst, S. (2023) Short- and long-term effects of nutritional state on IGF-1 levels in nestlings of a wild passerine. Oecologia, 203, pp. 27-35. (doi: 10.1007/s00442-023-05445-3) (PMID:37676486) (PMCID:PMC10615909)

Tregenza, T., Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Ojanguren, A. F., Hopwood, P. and Boonekamp, J. (2023) Impacts of Parental Age and Inbreeding on Fitness in a Wild Insect. [Research Reports or Papers] (Accepted for Publication)

Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Hopwood, P., Boonekamp, J. J. , Edwards, S. A., Price, T. W., Rees, J. and Tregenza, T. (2023) Local adaptation does not constrain the expression of behaviour in translocated wild crickets. Animal Behaviour, 200, pp. 15-23. (doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.03.010)

Borger, M. J., Buach, C., Boonekamp, J. J. and Verhulst, S. (2023) Egg size effects on nestling mass in jackdaws Corvus monedula: a cross-foster experiment. Journal of Avian Biology, 2023(5-6), e03099. (doi: 10.1111/jav.03099)

Armstrong, E. and Boonekamp, J. (2023) Does oxidative stress shorten telomeres in vivo? A meta-analysis. Ageing Research Reviews, 85, 101854. (doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2023.101854) (PMID:36657619)

2022

Bauch, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Korsten, P., Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2022) High heritability of telomere length and low heritability of telomere shortening in wild birds. Molecular Ecology, 31(23), pp. 6308-6323. (doi: 10.1111/mec.16183) (PMID:34532917) (PMCID:PMC9787985)

Boonekamp, J. , Rodríguez‐Muñoz, R., Hopwood, P., Zuidersma, E., Mulder, E., Wilson, A., Verhulst, S. and Tregenza, T. (2022) Telomere length is highly heritable and independent of growth rate manipulated by temperature in field crickets. Molecular Ecology, 31(23), pp. 6128-6140. (doi: 10.1111/mec.15888) (PMID:33728719)

2021

Tregenza, T. et al. (2021) Evidence for genetic isolation and local adaptation in the field cricket Gryllus campestris. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 34(10), pp. 1624-1636. (doi: 10.1111/jeb.13911) (PMID:34378263)

2020

Boonekamp, J. J. , Bauch, C., Verhulst, S. and Richardson, D. (2020) Experimentally increased brood size accelerates actuarial senescence and increases subsequent reproductive effort in a wild bird population. Journal of Animal Ecology, 89(6), pp. 1395-1407. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13186) (PMID:32037534) (PMCID:PMC7317873)

Makai, G., Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2020) Males and females differ in how their behaviour changes with age in wild crickets. Animal Behaviour, 164, pp. 1-8. (doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.03.011)

Goerlich, V. C., Dijkstra, C., Boonekamp, J. J. and Groothuis, T. G. G. (2020) Change in body mass can overrule the effects of maternal testosterone on primary offspring sex ratio of first eggs in homing pigeons. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 83(3), pp. 490-500. (doi: 10.1086/651315) (PMID:20345244)

2019

Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Fisher, D., Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2019) Slower senescence in a wild insect population in years with a more female-biased sex ratio. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 286(1900), 20190286. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0286) (PMID:30940063) (PMCID:PMC6501688)

Bauch, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Korsten, P., Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2019) Epigenetic inheritance of telomere length in wild birds. PLoS Genetics, 15(2), e1007827. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007827) (PMID:30763308) (PMCID:PMC6375570)

Rodríguez‐Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Liu, X. P., Skicko, I., Fisher, D. N., Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2019) Testing the effect of early‐life reproductive effort on age‐related decline in a wild insect. Evolution, 73(2), pp. 317-328. (doi: 10.1111/evo.13679) (PMID:30597559) (PMCID:PMC6590129)

Rodríguez‐Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Liu, X. P., Skicko, I., Haugland Pedersen, S., Fisher, D. N., Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2019) Comparing individual and population measures of senescence across 10 years in a wild insect population. Evolution, 73(2), pp. 293-302. (doi: 10.1111/evo.13674) (PMID:30597539) (PMCID:PMC6590638)

2018

Boonekamp, J. J. , Mulder, E., Verhulst, S. and Coulson, T. (2018) Canalisation in the wild: effects of developmental conditions on physiological traits are inversely linked to their association with fitness. Ecology Letters, 21(6), pp. 857-864. (doi: 10.1111/ele.12953) (PMID:29601669)

Wilbourn, R. V., Moatt, J. P., Froy, H., Walling, C. A., Nussey, D. H. and Boonekamp, J. J. (2018) The relationship between telomere length and mortality risk in non-model vertebrate systems: a meta-analysis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1741), p. 20160447. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0447) (PMID:29335371) (PMCID:PMC5784067)

2017

Boonekamp, J. J. , Bauch, C., Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2017) Does oxidative stress shorten telomeres? Biology Letters, 13(5), 20170164. (doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0164) (PMID:28468913) (PMCID:PMC5454244)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Dijkstra, R., Dijkstra, C., Verhulst, S. and Blanckenhorn, W. (2017) Canalization of development reduces the utility of traits as fitness biomarkers: feather fault bars in nestling birds. Functional Ecology, 31(3), pp. 719-727. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12765)

Briga, M., Koetsier, E., Boonekamp, J. J. , Jimeno, B. and Verhulst, S. (2017) Food availability affects adult survival trajectories depending on early developmental conditions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 284(1846), 20162287. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2287) (PMID:28053061) (PMCID:PMC5247499)

2016

Atema, E., van Noordwijk, A. J., Boonekamp, J. J. and Verhulst, S. (2016) Costs of long-term carrying of extra mass in a songbird. Behavioral Ecology, 27(4), pp. 1087-1096. (doi: 10.1093/beheco/arw019)

Gorter, J. A., Jagadeesh, S., Gahr, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Levine, J. D. and Billeter, J.-C. (2016) The nutritional and hedonic value of food modulate sexual receptivity in Drosophila melanogaster females. Scientific Reports, 6, 19441. (doi: 10.1038/srep19441) (PMID:26777264) (PMCID:PMC4726014)

2015

Boonekamp, J. J. , Briga, M. and Verhulst, S. (2015) The heuristic value of redundancy models of aging. Experimental Gerontology, 71, pp. 95-102. (doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2015.09.005) (PMID:26362219)

2014

Verhulst, S., Geerdink, M., Salomons, H. M. and Boonekamp, J. J. (2014) Social life histories: jackdaw dominance increases with age, terminally declines and shortens lifespan. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 281(1791), 20141045. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1045) (PMID:25100696) (PMCID:PMC4132676)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Mulder, G.A., Salomons, H. M., Dijkstra, C. and Verhulst, S. (2014) Nestling telomere shortening, but not telomere length, reflects developmental stress and predicts survival in wild birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 281(1785), 20133287. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3287)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Salomons, M., Bouwhuis, S., Dijkstra, C., Verhulst, S. and Sorci, G. (2014) Reproductive effort accelerates actuarial senescence in wild birds: an experimental study. Ecology Letters, 17(5), pp. 599-605. (doi: 10.1111/ele.12263) (PMID:24818237)

2013

Boonekamp, J. J. , Simons, M. J. P., Hemerik, L. and Verhulst, S. (2013) Telomere length behaves as biomarker of somatic redundancy rather than biological age. Aging Cell, 12(2), pp. 330-332. (doi: 10.1111/acel.12050) (PMID:23346961)

2008

Boonekamp, J. J. , Ros, A. H.F. and Verhulst, S. (2008) Immune activation suppresses plasma testosterone level: a meta-analysis. Biology Letters, 4(6), pp. 741-744. (doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0347) (PMID:18700197) (PMCID:PMC2614147)

This list was generated on Fri Mar 28 10:53:02 2025 GMT.
Jump to: Articles | Research Reports or Papers
Number of items: 31.

Articles

Pitt, M. D., Alhowiti, N. S. S., Branston, C. J. , Carlon, E., Boonekamp, J. , Dominoni, D. and Capilla Lasheras, P. (2025) Environmental constraints can explain clutch size differences between urban and forest blue tits: insights from an egg removal experiment. Journal of Animal Ecology, 94(3), pp. 368-378. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.14171) (PMID:39219149) (PMCID:PMC11880655)

Reid, R., Capilla-Lasheras, P. , Haddou, Y., Boonekamp, J. and Dominoni, D. (2024) The impact of urbanisation on health depends on the health metric, life stage and level of urbanisation: a global meta-analysis on avian species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2027), 20240617. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0617) (PMID:39016598) (PMCID:PMC11253839)

Badás, E. P., Bauch, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2023) Ectoparasite presence and brood size manipulation interact to accelerate telomere shortening in nestling jackdaws. Molecular Ecology, 32(24), pp. 6913-6923. (doi: 10.1111/mec.17177) (PMID:37864481)

Lodjak, J., Boonekamp, J. , Lendvai, Á. Z. and Verhulst, S. (2023) Short- and long-term effects of nutritional state on IGF-1 levels in nestlings of a wild passerine. Oecologia, 203, pp. 27-35. (doi: 10.1007/s00442-023-05445-3) (PMID:37676486) (PMCID:PMC10615909)

Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Hopwood, P., Boonekamp, J. J. , Edwards, S. A., Price, T. W., Rees, J. and Tregenza, T. (2023) Local adaptation does not constrain the expression of behaviour in translocated wild crickets. Animal Behaviour, 200, pp. 15-23. (doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.03.010)

Borger, M. J., Buach, C., Boonekamp, J. J. and Verhulst, S. (2023) Egg size effects on nestling mass in jackdaws Corvus monedula: a cross-foster experiment. Journal of Avian Biology, 2023(5-6), e03099. (doi: 10.1111/jav.03099)

Armstrong, E. and Boonekamp, J. (2023) Does oxidative stress shorten telomeres in vivo? A meta-analysis. Ageing Research Reviews, 85, 101854. (doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2023.101854) (PMID:36657619)

Bauch, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Korsten, P., Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2022) High heritability of telomere length and low heritability of telomere shortening in wild birds. Molecular Ecology, 31(23), pp. 6308-6323. (doi: 10.1111/mec.16183) (PMID:34532917) (PMCID:PMC9787985)

Boonekamp, J. , Rodríguez‐Muñoz, R., Hopwood, P., Zuidersma, E., Mulder, E., Wilson, A., Verhulst, S. and Tregenza, T. (2022) Telomere length is highly heritable and independent of growth rate manipulated by temperature in field crickets. Molecular Ecology, 31(23), pp. 6128-6140. (doi: 10.1111/mec.15888) (PMID:33728719)

Tregenza, T. et al. (2021) Evidence for genetic isolation and local adaptation in the field cricket Gryllus campestris. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 34(10), pp. 1624-1636. (doi: 10.1111/jeb.13911) (PMID:34378263)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Bauch, C., Verhulst, S. and Richardson, D. (2020) Experimentally increased brood size accelerates actuarial senescence and increases subsequent reproductive effort in a wild bird population. Journal of Animal Ecology, 89(6), pp. 1395-1407. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13186) (PMID:32037534) (PMCID:PMC7317873)

Makai, G., Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2020) Males and females differ in how their behaviour changes with age in wild crickets. Animal Behaviour, 164, pp. 1-8. (doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.03.011)

Goerlich, V. C., Dijkstra, C., Boonekamp, J. J. and Groothuis, T. G. G. (2020) Change in body mass can overrule the effects of maternal testosterone on primary offspring sex ratio of first eggs in homing pigeons. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, 83(3), pp. 490-500. (doi: 10.1086/651315) (PMID:20345244)

Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Fisher, D., Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2019) Slower senescence in a wild insect population in years with a more female-biased sex ratio. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 286(1900), 20190286. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0286) (PMID:30940063) (PMCID:PMC6501688)

Bauch, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Korsten, P., Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2019) Epigenetic inheritance of telomere length in wild birds. PLoS Genetics, 15(2), e1007827. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007827) (PMID:30763308) (PMCID:PMC6375570)

Rodríguez‐Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Liu, X. P., Skicko, I., Fisher, D. N., Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2019) Testing the effect of early‐life reproductive effort on age‐related decline in a wild insect. Evolution, 73(2), pp. 317-328. (doi: 10.1111/evo.13679) (PMID:30597559) (PMCID:PMC6590129)

Rodríguez‐Muñoz, R., Boonekamp, J. J. , Liu, X. P., Skicko, I., Haugland Pedersen, S., Fisher, D. N., Hopwood, P. and Tregenza, T. (2019) Comparing individual and population measures of senescence across 10 years in a wild insect population. Evolution, 73(2), pp. 293-302. (doi: 10.1111/evo.13674) (PMID:30597539) (PMCID:PMC6590638)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Mulder, E., Verhulst, S. and Coulson, T. (2018) Canalisation in the wild: effects of developmental conditions on physiological traits are inversely linked to their association with fitness. Ecology Letters, 21(6), pp. 857-864. (doi: 10.1111/ele.12953) (PMID:29601669)

Wilbourn, R. V., Moatt, J. P., Froy, H., Walling, C. A., Nussey, D. H. and Boonekamp, J. J. (2018) The relationship between telomere length and mortality risk in non-model vertebrate systems: a meta-analysis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1741), p. 20160447. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0447) (PMID:29335371) (PMCID:PMC5784067)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Bauch, C., Mulder, E. and Verhulst, S. (2017) Does oxidative stress shorten telomeres? Biology Letters, 13(5), 20170164. (doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0164) (PMID:28468913) (PMCID:PMC5454244)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Dijkstra, R., Dijkstra, C., Verhulst, S. and Blanckenhorn, W. (2017) Canalization of development reduces the utility of traits as fitness biomarkers: feather fault bars in nestling birds. Functional Ecology, 31(3), pp. 719-727. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12765)

Briga, M., Koetsier, E., Boonekamp, J. J. , Jimeno, B. and Verhulst, S. (2017) Food availability affects adult survival trajectories depending on early developmental conditions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 284(1846), 20162287. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2287) (PMID:28053061) (PMCID:PMC5247499)

Atema, E., van Noordwijk, A. J., Boonekamp, J. J. and Verhulst, S. (2016) Costs of long-term carrying of extra mass in a songbird. Behavioral Ecology, 27(4), pp. 1087-1096. (doi: 10.1093/beheco/arw019)

Gorter, J. A., Jagadeesh, S., Gahr, C., Boonekamp, J. J. , Levine, J. D. and Billeter, J.-C. (2016) The nutritional and hedonic value of food modulate sexual receptivity in Drosophila melanogaster females. Scientific Reports, 6, 19441. (doi: 10.1038/srep19441) (PMID:26777264) (PMCID:PMC4726014)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Briga, M. and Verhulst, S. (2015) The heuristic value of redundancy models of aging. Experimental Gerontology, 71, pp. 95-102. (doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2015.09.005) (PMID:26362219)

Verhulst, S., Geerdink, M., Salomons, H. M. and Boonekamp, J. J. (2014) Social life histories: jackdaw dominance increases with age, terminally declines and shortens lifespan. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 281(1791), 20141045. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1045) (PMID:25100696) (PMCID:PMC4132676)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Mulder, G.A., Salomons, H. M., Dijkstra, C. and Verhulst, S. (2014) Nestling telomere shortening, but not telomere length, reflects developmental stress and predicts survival in wild birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 281(1785), 20133287. (doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3287)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Salomons, M., Bouwhuis, S., Dijkstra, C., Verhulst, S. and Sorci, G. (2014) Reproductive effort accelerates actuarial senescence in wild birds: an experimental study. Ecology Letters, 17(5), pp. 599-605. (doi: 10.1111/ele.12263) (PMID:24818237)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Simons, M. J. P., Hemerik, L. and Verhulst, S. (2013) Telomere length behaves as biomarker of somatic redundancy rather than biological age. Aging Cell, 12(2), pp. 330-332. (doi: 10.1111/acel.12050) (PMID:23346961)

Boonekamp, J. J. , Ros, A. H.F. and Verhulst, S. (2008) Immune activation suppresses plasma testosterone level: a meta-analysis. Biology Letters, 4(6), pp. 741-744. (doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0347) (PMID:18700197) (PMCID:PMC2614147)

Research Reports or Papers

Tregenza, T., Rodríguez-Muñoz, R., Ojanguren, A. F., Hopwood, P. and Boonekamp, J. (2023) Impacts of Parental Age and Inbreeding on Fitness in a Wild Insect. [Research Reports or Papers] (Accepted for Publication)

This list was generated on Fri Mar 28 10:53:02 2025 GMT.

Grants

Grants and Awards listed are those received whilst working with the University of Glasgow.

  • Too hot to care? Understanding parental care and mate choice in a changing world
    Leverhulme Trust
    2025 - 2028
     
  • Ageing of the germline: testing alternative theories of ageing
    Leverhulme Trust
    2024 - 2028
     
  • Predictors of COVID-19 Outcomes
    Natural Environment Research Council
    2023 - 2023
     
  • Developing health and frailty biomarkers linking environmental conditions to fitness in a wild insect population
    Wild Animal Initiative
    2022 - 2024
     

Supervision

  • Pitt, Mark
    Parental age effects on offspring quality
  • Reid, Rachel
    Assessing the impacts of urbanisation and artificial light at night (ALAN) on avian health using both meta-analysis and experimental methods.

Teaching

I am coordinating the following courses

L3 Vertebrate Life (with Ash Le Vin)

L4 Animal Ecophysiology (with Shaun Killen)

Professional activities & recognition

Research fellowships

  • 2018 - 2020: Marie Curie Fellowship

Grant committees & research advisory boards

  • 2021 - 2022: European Research Council, Marie-Curie

Editorial boards

  • 2023: Journal of animal ecology

Professional & learned societies

  • , British Ecological Society

Jelle Boonekamp inspecting fault bars on jackdaw nestling feathers