Our research uses movement ecology as a framework to understand how individuals and populations respond to changes in their environment in order to project how future change may alter a population’s dynamics and evolutionary trajectory.
Our Philosophy
The natural world knows no political boundaries. That means that we are all stakeholders in the conservation of our biodiversity and our lab welcomes the involvement of anyone and everyone, no matter where they come from or how they identify themselves. We are also working to overcome our own biases, as well as those that have long prevailed in the scientific and conservation communities, by learning from and engaging with the communities whose lives intersect with the species we study.
The natural world knows no political boundaries. That means that we are all stakeholders in the conservation of our biodiversity and our lab welcomes the involvement of anyone and everyone, no matter where they come from or how they identify themselves. We are also working to overcome our own biases, as well as those that have long prevailed in the scientific and conservation communities, by learning from and engaging with the communities whose lives intersect with the species we study.
Breaking News
- We have two new articles on Hudsonian Godwits out this week! Both focus on the ability of godwits to respond to changes in their environment during the breeding season. In the first article, former lab undergraduate, Eden Smith, investigated how the muskeg bogs in which godwits breed in Alaska have changed and whether or not these changes have negatively impacted godwits. To our surprise, we found that while the bog has changed, godwit nest sites have changed less than the surrounding bog and the changes to nest sites that have occurred have not had any negative effects on godwits. In fact, their nests are hatching at a 22% higher rate now than they did in 2009 when we started the project! In the second article, lab PhD student Feipeng Huang explored the ability of godwit chicks to vary their foraging and growth rates as temperature and food availability changes. He found that godwit chicks unfortunately exhibit very little environmental responsiveness. This is particularly costly for female chicks, which must grow faster and larger than males. As a result, female chicks must do much of their growth after the local peak in invertebrate availability. Taken together, these two articles demonstrate how nuanced the effects of climate change are on species and how hard it makes finding clear cut solutions for helping species as climate change accelerates.
- Every few years, just when you think it's finally spring, a late winter storm will hit. These storms can often snarl travel and challenge human infrastructures, but how do they affect migratory birds and other wildlife? Combining 27 years of citizen science data, genomic tools, and museum specimens collected during the 'Great Texas Freeze' of 2021, our team answered just that question for Purple Martins. In a paper out now in Nature Ecology and Evolution led by lab collaborator Dr. Maria Stager, we found that the storm likely killed returning Purple Martins at 53% of their breeding sites in Texas and Louisiana, comprising up to 27% of their population in those two states. What's more the loss of those individuals led to marked shifts in allele frequencies across the martin genome. These demographic consequences are likely to take martins years, or even decades, to recover from. Taken together, our results show how just one late winter storm can have profound impacts on even large, healthy populations, let alone the smaller populations of more vulnerable species.
nsenner at umass.edu
Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Holdsworth Hall 219
Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Holdsworth Hall 219
Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A.