Interactive Effects of Dietary Fatty Acids and Antioxidants on Diet Choices, Metabolism, and Exercise Performance of Migratory Songbirds

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Principal Investigators: Dr. Scott R. McWilliams, Associate Professor, University of Rhode Island Dr. Barbara J. Pierce, Assistant Professor, Sacred Heart UniversityProject Number: IOS-0748349Project Title: Interactive effects of dietary fatty acids and antioxidants on diet choices, metabolism, and exercise performance of birdsAbstract: Athletes train and eat to increase their capacity to perform on demand. A major gap in our understanding of the ecology and physiology of wild animals is how biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes interact to affect whole-animal performance. The investigators will experimentally determine how dietary fats and antioxidants influence diet choices, metabolism, and exercise performance of migratory birds. Two species of migratory songbird will be fed diets with certain types of fats and antioxidants. The investigators then measure the metabolism and energy expenditure of these migratory birds during short-intense exercise, like that used to escape predators, and during long-duration migratory flights in a wind tunnel. The investigators will also determine if birds choose their diets to achieve some optimum fat composition, and whether this depends on the condition of the bird or the concentration of antioxidants in the diet. The research will be conducted by a vertically-integrated research team comprised of members from a large state research university (USA), a small private university (USA), and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (Germany) so that participants gain experience working within a diversity of educational and research settings. Society at large will benefit from this research because there is much current interest in dietary antioxidants and how they may promote human health, and migratory birds offer an interesting model system for studying the effects of dietary antioxidants and fat composition on exercise performance of a vertebrate. Also, understanding the nutritional ecology of migratory songbirds is critical because many songbird populations are declining, because migratory birds are implicated as dispersers of disease, and because many of the sites used by birds during their migration are threatened by development or disturbance by humans. Thus, this fundamental research on diet choices and exercise performance of migratory songbirds has important implications for wildlife conservation and human health.