Collaborative Research: MRA: Insectivore Response to Environmental Change

合作研究：MRA：食虫动物对环境变化的反应

• 批准号: 2017554
• 负责人: Kyle Horton
• 金额: $ 53.41万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-12-01 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2017554&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; MRA; Insectivore; Response

The lower atmosphere (i.e., aerosphere) is home to literally billions of organisms, including microbes, insects and birds. Species in the aerosphere often use other airborne organisms for food and are interdependent on one another. In recent decades, populations of many aerosphere organisms, such as birds and butterflies, have been rapidly declining in abundance. This project will examine the ecology of two bird and one bat species, all three of which feed on insects, and how their populations are responding in complicated ways to environmental change. These three species can also all be tracked when they emerge from their roosts by using state-of-the-art computer vision techniques with NEXRAD, the United States weather surveillance radar network. Project researchers will use the vast and ever-growing repository of data from the NEXRAD network to quantify the causes and consequences of ecological change in the aerial feeding and group habits of the two bird species (Purple Martins and Tree Swallows) and Mexican free-tailed Bats. The project will leverage environmental data from the NSF National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) together with the radar data to identify the drivers of changes in abundance, feeding, reproduction and other seasonal patterns. The massive data sets will be integrated with one another to develop predictions of how these three aerosphere species are changing at regional to continental scale, and in response to environmental changes. These studies will also incorporate training opportunities for a postdoctoral researcher and several graduate students and will include hosting an annual workshop on radar aeroecology for students and researchers (including members of underrepresented groups in science). Project investigators will work with a media team to produce a series of five video presentations on studying the ecology of birds, bats and insects in the aerosphere.This project has two objectives: (1) understand how global environmental change has impacted seasonal timing and population abundance of aerial insectivores over the past twenty-five years and (2) determine drivers of recent within and between seasonal variation in timing and abundance. Aerial insectivore populations have shown precipitous declines in the last half century — often at much steeper rates than other aerial taxa. Understanding mechanisms driving these changes would have broad implications for hundreds of species of birds, bats, and insects, and also serve as an indicator of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem health. However, the data sets needed to understand these mechanisms are currently lacking and urgently needed. While macroscale remote-sensing platforms for animals are rare, NEXRAD has emerged as a comprehensive source of information about flying animals, with large-scale and long-term (two decades) coverage. The investigators will employ an interdisciplinary approach integrating radar remote sensing, data from NEON, and computer modelling to fill this vital gap and to test questions about population change, phenology, and trophic interactions in response to anthropogenic drivers of macroscale environmental change. The PIs will focus their project on the widespread roosting behaviors of three aerial insectivore species as bellwethers for environmental change and ecosystem health: Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, and Mexican free-tailed Bat. This collaborative and interdisciplinary approach will yield large-scale, quantitative, and predictive insights into changing environments. They will also generate new workflows, methodologies, and insights for the use of NEON data for the study of global change. Through this proposal the investigators will generate the tools and web interface to automatically identify, locate, and disseminate information regarding U.S.-wide roosting phenomena. The status of aerial insectivores is a representation of the seasonal pulse of ecosystem health — the questions, infrastructural development, and outreach proposed will serve as for monitoring the status of aerial insectivores at the continental scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

低层大气（即大气层）是数十亿生物体的家园，包括微生物、昆虫和鸟类。大气层中的物种经常以其他空气传播的生物为食，并且相互依赖。近几十年来，许多大气层生物（例如鸟类和蝴蝶）的数量急剧下降。该项目将研究两种鸟类和一种蝙蝠物种的生态，这三种鸟类都以昆虫为食，以及它们的种群如何以复杂的方式应对环境变化。当这三个物种从栖息地出来时，还可以通过使用最先进的计算机视觉技术和 NEXRAD（美国天气监视雷达网络）对其进行跟踪。项目研究人员将利用 NEXRAD 网络中庞大且不断增长的数据存储库来量化两种鸟类（紫马丁斯和树燕）和墨西哥无尾蝙蝠的空中进食和群体习性的生态变化的原因和后果。该项目将利用 NSF 国家生态观测站网络 (NEON) 的环境数据以及雷达数据来确定丰度、进食、繁殖和其他季节性模式变化的驱动因素。 大量数据集将相互整合，以预测这三种大气层物种如何在区域到大陆范围内发生变化，以及对环境变化的响应。这些研究还将为一名博士后研究员和几名研究生提供培训机会，并将包括为学生和研究人员（包括科学领域代表性不足的群体的成员）举办雷达航空生态学年度研讨会。项目研究人员将与媒体团队合作制作一系列五个视频演示，研究大气层中鸟类、蝙蝠和昆虫的生态。该项目有两个目标：(1) 了解过去 25 年全球环境变化如何影响空中食虫动物的季节时间和种群丰度；(2) 确定近期季节内和季节之间时间和丰度变化的驱动因素。在过去的半个世纪里，空中食虫动物的数量急剧下降，其下降速度往往比其他空中类群要快得多。了解驱动这些变化的机制将对数百种鸟类、蝙蝠和昆虫产生广泛影响，并可作为陆地和水生生态系统健康的指标。然而，目前缺乏且迫切需要理解这些机制所需的数据集。虽然针对动物的宏观遥感平台很少见，但 NEXRAD 已成为有关飞行动物的综合信息来源，具有大规模和长期（二十年）的覆盖范围。研究人员将采用跨学科方法，将雷达遥感、NEON 数据和计算机建模相结合，以填补这一重要空白，并测试有关人口变化、物候和营养相互作用的问题，以应对宏观环境变化的人为驱动因素。 PI 将把他们的项目重点放在三种空中食虫动物广泛的栖息行为上，它们是环境变化和生态系统健康的领头羊：紫马丁、树燕和墨西哥无尾蝙蝠。这种协作和跨学科的方法将对不断变化的环境产生大规模、定量和预测性的见解。他们还将生成新的工作流程、方法和见解，以使用 NEON 数据研究全球变化。通过这项提案，调查人员将生成工具和网络界面来自动识别、定位和传播有关美国范围内栖息现象的信息。空中食虫动物的状况代表了生态系统健康的季节性脉动——所提出的问题、基础设施开发和推广活动将用于监测大陆范围内空中食虫动物的状况。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

A weather surveillance radar view of Alaskan avian migration

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0232
• 发表时间: 2021-05
• 期刊: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
• 作者: Ashwin H. Sivakumar;D. Sheldon;Kevin Winner;Carolyn S. Burt;K. Horton

Six decades of North American bird banding records reveal plasticity in migration phenology

• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13887
• 发表时间: 2023-01-30
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Horton, Kyle G.;Morris, Sara R.;Covino, Kristen M.
• 通讯作者: Covino, Kristen M.

Long‐term analysis of persistence and size of swallow and martin roosts in the US Great Lakes

对美国五大湖燕子和马丁栖息地的持久性和规模的长期分析

• DOI: 10.1002/rse2.323
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
• 影响因子: 5.5
• 作者: Belotti, Maria Carolina T. D.;Deng, Yuting;Zhao, Wenlong;Simons, Victoria F.;Cheng, Zezhou;Perez, Gustavo;Tielens, Elske;Maji, Subhransu;Sheldon, Daniel;Kelly, Jeffrey F.
• 通讯作者: Kelly, Jeffrey F.