Behavioural ecology and demography of North Pacific seabirds

我的建议集中在海鸟的生态和行为方面，有四个主要内容：1）扩大研究海鸟的运动和迁徙与个体特征和海洋气候的关系（"旗舰项目“）; 2）继续研究海雀羽毛气味、体外寄生虫和性选择的行为生态学;阐明气味作为性选择性状与自然选择的寄生虫驱避剂的相对重要性，扩大田间实验和对所有Alcoholae的比较分析; 3）继续研究气候对人口的影响，并将其扩展到古生态学，以从长期人口变化的角度看待目前的模式; 4）阿留申海鸟保护生物学，重点是引进的捕食者，勘探行为，群体形成和岛屿恢复。我们的研究将在运动和扩散研究中被忽视的领域取得进展，特别是对于较小的海雀，这是白令海地区数量上占主导地位的海鸟。海鸟生物学的一个悖论是，大多数研究都集中在它们在陆地上的活动（在繁殖地的研究），而不是在海上。毫不夸张地说，有关鸟类在繁殖季节以外在海上活动的定量信息一直是海鸟生物学的“圣杯”，因为这是了解这些鸟类生态的基础。除了缩小对海鸟生态知之甚少的领域的差距外，我们在迁徙和扩散方面的工作将为北太平洋海洋生产力和海洋学的模式提供独特的见解，并为恢复受损岛屿提供援助，这是世界上最受威胁的生态系统之一。 我们在性选择、羽毛气味和体外寄生虫方面的工作，在一个有争议的主题领域中，对鸟类羽毛中化学排放的功能提出了相互竞争的假设。 我们对海雀人口统计学的研究沿着与阿拉斯加的古生态组成部分将在气候变化对北方海洋生态系统的影响的工作的最前沿。 我们的保护生物学重点部分解决了许多有关岛屿保护和减轻人类影响和恢复受损偏远岛屿的问题。

My proposal focuses on ecology and behaviour of seabirds, with four major elements: 1) an expanded study of seabird movement and migration in relation to individual characteristics and ocean climate (the 'flagship project'); 2) continued study of behavioural ecology of auklet feather odor, ectoparasites and sexual selection, to clarify the relative importance of odor as a sexually selected trait versus a naturally selected parasite repellant, with expanded field experiments and comparative analysis of all Alcidae; 3) continuing work on climate forcing of demography with an extension to palaeoecology to place present patterns in the perspective of long term population variability; and 4) Aleutian seabird conservation biology with an emphasis on introduced predators, prospecting behaviour, colony formation and island restoration. Our research will make advances in neglected areas in movement and dispersal study, especially for smaller auks, that are the numerically dominant seabirds of the Bering Sea region. It is a paradox of seabird biology that most studies have focused on their activities on land (research at breeding sites) rather than at sea. It is no exaggeration to state that quantitative information about birds' activity at sea outside the breeding season has been a 'holy grail' of seabird biology, because this is so fundamental to understanding these birds' ecology. Apart from closing the gap on a poorly known area of seabird ecology, our work on migration and dispersal will provide a unique insight into patterns of North Pacific ocean productivity and oceanography, and provide assistance to the restoration of damaged islands, one of the world's most threatened ecosystems. Our work on sexual selection, plumage odor and ectoparasites, follows up in a controversial subject area with competing hypotheses for the function of chemical emissions in birds feathers. Our research on auk demography along with the palaeoecological component in Alaska will be at the forefront of work on climate change effects on northern marine ecosystems. Our conservation biology focussed component addresses many questions relating to island conservation and the mitigation of human impacts and restoration of damaged remote islands.