U.S.-Australia IRES Collaboration: Behavioral ecology research training in Australia's tropical savannah

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This International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) award is made to Professor Jordan Karubian in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The 21 participating U.S. graduate and undergraduate students will collaborate for two months over a period of three years with researchers in the School for Environmental Research at Charles Darwin University in Australia. Their foreign collaborators at the Institute are Professor Michael Lawes and Professor Donald Franklin. The students will study avian behavioral ecology and fire ecology research in the world?s largest remaining tropical savannah habitat. The research will develop an understanding of the relationship between the environment, demography, and the mating system of the red-backed fairy-wren. The students will exploit the considerable flexibility these wrens exhibit in social organization, expression of sexual signals, and mating behavior in an area in which ecological conditions vary in a patchwork manner. By characterizing the degree to which the wrens use flexible behavioral and physiological strategies to negotiate the ecological and social environment that they experience, and comparing this reproductive flexibility with other tropical and temperate species, it is likely that this research will further our understanding of avian mating systems and how they respond to anthropogenic activities. The program will provide technical training in cutting edge behavioral ecology methods and will build the capacity of these students to work with foreign collaborators in the future. The researchers also plan to include Australian Aboriginal groups in their field research projects.A major emphasis of the project is to engage U.S. students in meaningful projects with international students and faculty. Students will work closely with researchers with different scientific backgrounds and will learn field and laboratory techniques that will enhance their research skills. Altogether, these experiences will increase the networking and international competitiveness of the student participants. The research program will have broad impacts on biological education and research.