Our research focuses on gaining a mechanistic understanding of 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. ​

Breaking News

  • So proud to announce that international student and lab member Julian Garcia Walther was awarded a Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with seven partner organizations across Northwest Mexico. Julian and co. are going to launch the first network of Motus towers in the region to track the movements of endangered coastal birds, like Red Knots and Elegant Terns. This should pay real dividends for both avian science and conservation!
  • Ever wonder how songbirds survive winters at high latitudes? Our new paper by lab collaborator Maria Stager in Journal of Experimental Biology shows that Dark-eyed Juncos are able to layer their physiological responses to meet the specific demands of their environment. Short bouts of cold are thus met by different responses than long bouts. This suggests that juncos are highly flexible in how they can respond to changes in temperature. That's good news in our new, highly variable and unpredictable world.
  • The last of the papers from the Arctic Shorebird Demographic Network is now published in Condor. Lead author Emily Weiser found that adult survival rates are the main driver of population trends among six species of Arctic-breeding shorebirds. Many holes remain in our knowledge of shorebird demography, however, especially the importance of chick and juvenile survival. Hopefully we can start filling those knowledge gaps soon!
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senner at mailbox.sc.edu
Department of Biological Sciences
University of South Carolina​
Coker Life Sciences 406
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.A.