Avian Reproduction Dynamics and Ecomorphology in Boreal Ecosystems

加拿大的北方森林以其作为数十亿鸣禽的主要繁殖地而闻名。然而，我们对这个庞大的生态系统中鸟类繁殖的基本知识知之甚少，更不用说鸟类繁殖动力学背后的机制了，主要是因为难以获得广泛地区和整个物种群落的可靠适应性数据。近年来，我的发现补助金主要集中在北方和温带森林的栖息地选择过程。我的实验室已经通过实验证明，森林的破碎化确实限制了鸣禽的活动，以至于在经历了世纪的森林景观变化后，它成为了一种进化的力量，改变了森林鸟类的翅膀形态。这表明，森林格局的变化直接影响与鸣禽栖息地选择相关的权衡（健身成本/收益）。然而，栖息地破碎化，栖息地选择，人口和进化反应之间的联系仍然知之甚少。我的下一个发现基金将致力于通过一系列专注于鸣禽健康成分和栖息地选择的形态相关性的项目来寻找这种联系。 为了获得可靠的适应性估计，我的实验室最近开发了一种基于对父母活动和最先进的统计工具的观察的抽样方法，以获得对鸟类繁殖成功的无偏和可靠的估计（即养育一窝的概率）在广泛的地区和整个鸣禽社区。这种新方法为丰富的新研究途径打开了大门，并将使我的实验室能够实现以下研究目标：1）找到北方鸣禽筑巢成功的热点，2）寻找这些热点的景观相关性，3）通过寻求鸟类形态分布的区域和区域尺度模式，将我最近关于鸟类翅膀形态进化变化的工作提升到一个新的水平，在努力了解翅膀形状和栖息地选择之间的关系，作为在破碎的栖息地的运动成本的结果。 这些项目遵循逻辑从我以前的DG研究栖息地选择的行为机制。他们将延续我实验室的传统，通过对栖息地选择的机械理解来解决鸟类保护问题。我所有的DG研究将在我的大学的实验北方森林（福雷蒙特莫伦西，（47.1 N，71.1 W），以前67平方公里，但现在覆盖413平方公里和广泛的景观结构。这将是具有成本效益的，并增加了价值，考虑到这一生物群落对森林管理的重要性和加拿大北方森林长期行为研究的相对缺乏。

Canada's boreal forests are famous for their role as major breeding grounds for billions of songbirds. Yet, we know very little about the basics of avian reproduction in this vast ecosystem, let alone the mechanisms behind avian reproduction dynamics, mostly because of difficulties in getting reliable fitness data over extensive areas and entire species communities. In recent years, my Discovery Grant focused on habitat selection processes in boreal and temperate forests. My lab has shown experimentally that forest fragmentation does limit movements of songbirds, to the point of becoming an evolutionary force that has changed the wing morphology of forest birds after one century of forest landscape change. This suggests that changes in forest patterns directly impact the tradeoffs (fitness costs/benefits) associated to songbirds' habitat selection. Yet, the links between habitat fragmentation, habitat selection, and demographic and evolutionary responses remain poorly known. My next Discovery Grant will be dedicated to finding such links, through a set of projects focused on songbird fitness components and morphological correlates of habitat selection. To get reliable fitness estimates, my lab has recently developed a sampling method based on the observation of parental activity and state-of-the-art statistical tools to obtain unbiased and reliable estimates of breeding success of birds (i.e. the probability of rearing a brood) over extensive areas and entire songbird communities. This new approach opens the door to a rich set of new research avenues and will allow my lab to address the following research objectives: 1) Find hotspots of boreal songbirds nesting success, 2) look for landscape correlates of those hotspots and 3) take my recent work on evolutionary changes in bird wing morphology to a new level, by seeking landscape-and regional- scale patterns of bird distribution by morphology, in an effort to understand the relationship between wing shape and habitat selection as a result of the costs of movements in fragmented habitats. Those projects follow logically from my previous DG research on behavioral mechanisms of habitat selection. They will continue my lab's tradition of approaching avian conservation problems through a mechanistic understanding of habitat selection. All of my DG research will be conducted in my University's experimental boreal forest (Forêt Montmorency, (47.1N, 71.1W), formerly 67 km2 but now covering 413 km2 and a wide range of landscape structures. It will be cost-effective and have added value given the importance of this biome for forest management and the relative paucity of long term behavioral research in Canadian boreal forests.