IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Feedback between physiological performance and social foraging in multi-species social network of wintering birds

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While many birds migrate to warmer climates during the winter, some species are able to stay and survive cold winters despite their small bodies and need to maintain high body temperatures. Small birds that stay in temperate latitudes during the winter have physiological adaptations to promote heat production and maintain body temperature, as well as behavioral adaptations such as social foraging in flocks that can be composed of single or multiple species. In these flocks, the network of social relationships between individuals—within and between species—affect daily foraging patterns. Thus, these physiological and behavioral adaptations are linked through a feedback loop: social foraging allows birds to collect enough food to fuel heat production, and energy expended for heat creates demand for more food, which affects social foraging dynamics. This project explores these connections between the physiology of an individual and the ecological and social relationships that arise between group members and across species when they flock together in search of scarce resources. To understand how feedback between physiology and behavior influences the social dynamics between individuals and species in a community of wintering songbirds, we will: (1) quantify the effects of physiological variation on social network stability in the face of variable ambient temperatures; (2) experimentally manipulate energetic demand among social partners to test the importance of physiological constraints on social relationships; and, (3) experimentally manipulate coordination of foraging activities among social partners to test the importance of social relationships on physiological performance. These aims will be achieved by characterizing social foraging networks and assaying physiological performance in wild, marked populations of songbirds using arrays of feeders equipped with radio-frequency identification receivers to record social foraging bouts. We will additionally tease apart reciprocal relationships between physiology and social behavior by altering both the thermal environment and resource availability in the wild. Together this work will advance our understanding of the feedback between individual phenotypic variation and community social dynamics. This project will focus on broader impacts activities in four main areas: (1) Improving training and inclusivity in STEM through research experience for undergraduates, baccalaureate students, and graduate students across two universities, (2) Improving undergraduate STEM education through integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences, (3) Improving middle school STEM education through the production of scalable, high-production, interdisciplinary lesson plans for grades 6-9 that meet U.S. Next Generation Science Standards, and (4) Public engagement through field activities and presentations.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.