Climate and the ecological energetics of interacting species

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My research group uses a combination of laboratory, field, and modeling approaches to identify the ecological and evolutionary consequences of animal energetics (the process by which animals acquire and assimilate energy from the environment, and allocate assimilated energy between maintenance, growth, and reproduction). As it turns out, squirrels and chipmunks, familiar to most as visitors to backyard bird feeders and residents of urban parks, are some of the best animal models to study animal energetics, precisely because they are abundant and easy to observe, manipulate and capture. But rather than studying these species in backyards and parks, we study them where they occur in wild populations subject to natural resource-limitation and predation. We complement this small mammal research with studies on larger wildlife like moose, beaver and whales, which we conduct in collaboration with northern governments and communities. This research proposal focuses on using recent advances in biologging, which refers to the use of miniaturized animal-attached tags for logging and/or relaying of data about an animal's movements, behaviour, physiology and/or environment. We propose to deploy these biologgers on four prominent wildlife assemblages in different parts of the Canadian North to better understand how climate affects the energetic status (activity, heart rate, and body temperature) of species that interact as predators and prey or as competitors over shared respurces. This proposed research will contribute to new bioenergetic data and models that will help us document how northern environmental change will alter wildlife abundance, distribution and coexistence.