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.

Breaking News

  • Many shorebird populations are in decline, but the causes of these declines have been difficult to isolate and it is not clear if all portions of a species' population are declining at the same rate. Fernando Faria has a new paper out in Bird Conservation International exploring the population trends of Buff-breasted Sandpipers at four key nonbreeding sites in southeastern Brazil. Despite evidence that the species has declined by more than 50% in the past 45 years, surveys at these four sites from 2008-2020 showed no evidence of declines and that these sites support nearly 10% of the total population. Maintaining the integrity of these sites into the future is thus crucial to the species conservation as they made provide a bulwark against habitat degradation and loss elsewhere.
  • Despite myriad studies of the migration of routes of birds breeding in the Northern Hemisphere, the routes of species breeding in the Southern Hemisphere remain poorly known. Fernando Faria led a tracking study out today in Polar Biology of Rufous-chested Plovers that spend the nonbreeding season along the Brazilian Coast. To our surprise, all of the tracked individuals used tailwinds to fly directly to breeding areas on the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas instead of to known breeding areas in Argentine Patagonia. This has huge implications for placing proposed wind farms along the Brazilian coast, as well as for the spread of diseases to sub-Antarctic regions. Most importantly, it shows how much we still have to learn about bird migration in South America!
nsenner at umass.edu
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Holdsworth Hall 219
Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A.