Anneke J. Paijmans

Profile

My core interests are in animal behaviour, evolution and conservation. In my postdoctoral research I will continue working on “my” fur seals. One of my main aims is to complete a pedigree based on genetic samples of adult males, females and pup collected over three decades. In addition I will explore Antarctic fur seal male natal site philopatry.

Previous Research and Other Interests

In my PhD project, I used genetic and genomic techniques to gain a better understanding of how two anthropogenic pressures, historical exploitation and contemporary climate change, affect genetic diversity of Antarctic fur seals and what this means for individual fitness and population persistence.

The Antarctic fur seals were hunted to near extinction in the 18th and 19th century, but managed to recover to a population size in the millions. In the first part of my thesis, I investigated how the species was impacted by past exploitation and how subsequent recovery took place using different genetic tools. I used microsatellite genotyping to gain a better understanding of the population structure and demography of Antarctic fur seals. The results show strong population structure and genetic diversity loss was estimated to be around 15%, suggesting that multiple populations have survived sealing.

In the second part of my thesis, I wanted to explore the effects of climate change on individual fitness and population numbers. Currently, the adult female population is declining again due to climate change induced increase in selection pressure against inbred offspring. To elucidate in what life stage selection acts, I explored the effect of inbreeding depression on three important pup fitness traits. I found no effect, suggesting that selection against inbred individuals acts in the vulnerable juvenile life stage rather than in the pup life stage. I continued to analyse how the adult male population is affected by climate change and found the number of territorial males is declining dramatically over the last three decades and that this is driven by a reduction in recruitment success. Male recruitment success was found to be dependent on heterozygosity, birth mass and early-life environmental conditions.

My PhD project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the priority programme “Antarctic Research with comparative investigations in Arctic ice areas” SPP 1158.

Before I came to Bielefeld, I worked for several years in ecological consultancy, nature legislation and marine policy.

In my free time I love reading books, traveling, dancing and horseback riding.

Curriculum Vitae
  • 2025–Present: Postdoctoral researcher – University of Bielefeld, Germany
  • 2020–2025: PhD candidate – University of Bielefeld, Germany
  • 2018–2020: Early career scientist – University of Bielefeld, Germany
  • 2015–2017: MSc ‘Behaviour: From neural mechanisms to evolution’ – University of Bielefeld, Germany
  • 2011–2015: Marine ecologist – IMARES, The Netherlands
  • 2010–2011: Ecological consultant – Dienst Landelijk Gebied, The Netherlands
  • 2008–2010: Ecological consultant – Grontmij, The Netherlands
  • 2005–2008: MSc Biology, Specialisation: Animal Biology – Wageningen University, The Netherlands
  • 2001–2005: BSc Biology, specialisation: Ecology – Wageningen University, The Netherlands
Publications

Scientific Articles

You can find the full list of Anneke’s publications on ORCID.

Presentations

Paijmans, A.J., Berthelsen, A.L., Christaller, F., Kröcker, N., Forcada, J. & Hoffman, J.I. “Little evidence for inbreeding depression for birth mass, survival and growth in Antarctic fur seal pups” ConservGenomicsParis 2024, Paris, France

Paijmans, A.J., Stoffel, M.A., Bester, M.N., Cleary, A., De Bruyn, P.J.N., Forcada, J., Goebel, M.E., Goldsworthy, S.D., Guinet, C., Kovaks, K.M., Lowther, A. & Hoffman, J.I. “The genetic legacy of extreme exploitation in the Antarctic fur seal” World Marine Mammal Conference 2019, Barcelona, Spain

Posters

Paijmans, A.J., Berthelsen, A.L., Forcada, J., Hoffman, J.I. (2023) The effect of individual and maternal genetic diversity on early pup development in Antarctic fur seals. BEHAVIOUR2023, Bielefeld, Germany

Paijmans, A.J., Cleary, A.C., Humble, E., Forcada, J., de Bruyn, P.J.N., Bester, M.N, Lydersen, C., Guinet, C., Goldsworthy, S.D., Kovacs, K.M., Lowther, A.D., Hoffman J.I. (2017) Population structure in the Antactic fur seal: Recolonisation by a recovering population. 110th Annual Meeting of the German Zoological Society, Bielefeld, Germany

Paijmans, A.J., V. Swakman, F. Groenewoud, S.M. Amininasab, R.S. Marfull, J. Komdeur, P. Korsten (2015) Fair Sharing? Incomplete parental compensation for increased brood demand does not skew the distribution of food among nest mates. 10th International Conference on Behaviour, Physiology and Genetics of Wildlife, Berlin, Germany

For a full list of publications, including technical reports, see ResearchGate.

Contact Details

Department of Evolutionary Population Genetics
Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec)
Faculty of Biology
Bielefeld University
33615 Bielefeld
Germany

e-mail: a.paijmans[at]uni-bielefeld.de
researchgate: Anneke Paijmans
orcid: A.J. Paijmans