Operations and Maintenance Support - Advanced Facility for Avian Research

鸟类研究高级设施（AFAR）是全球独一无二的鸟类生理学、神经生物学和行为综合研究中心。AFAR向加拿大和世界各地的研究人员开放，汇集了生态学家和进化生物学家，生理学家，神经科学家和工程师，以解决与鸟类迁徙，繁殖和越冬有关的研究问题。在AFAR进行的研究课题包括迁徙飞行如何受到饮食和环境污染物的影响，鸟类飞行的流体动力学，鸟类的空间记忆和导航，鸟类如何检测和应对捕食者，鸟类如何应对天气，寄生虫和病原体如何影响鸟类迁徙，以及环境压力如何影响繁殖和发育。 AFAR提供独特的设施，包括世界上唯一的为鸟类飞行设计的风洞，可以控制空气压力，湿度和温度（模拟高达7公里的高度）。此外，专门的鸟舍和保存室允许在受控条件下研究各种鸟类。AFAR还拥有尖端的实验和分析技术，包括环境室，声学室，行为观察舞台，组织学实验室，激素测定和遗传分析，用于身体成分分析的磁共振仪器，用于测量休息和峰值代谢率的仪器，以及各种运动和行为分析软件。 AFAR是一个知识中心，提供了一个独特的培训环境，来自不同学科和机构的学生和博士后研究员每天进行互动和合作。AFAR也是一个研究中心，提供基础设施进行现场实验，并分析在现场或其他机构收集的样本。AFAR已被来自加拿大各地（不列颠哥伦比亚省、安大略、新斯科舍省）以及美国机构（罗得岛、康奈尔大学、马萨诸塞州-阿默斯特）的研究人员使用。 AFAR的基础设施在一个屋檐下提供了一个独特的机会，进行控制实验，以解决重要的基础和应用研究问题的基础上观察鸟类在野外。该设施的研究成果将帮助我们了解鸟类种群以及人为挑战如何影响鸟类迁徙和生存。

The Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR) is a globally unique research centre for integrative studies of bird physiology, neurobiology and behaviour. AFAR is open to researchers across Canada and the world, and brings together ecologists and evolutionary biologists, physiologists, neuroscientists, and engineers to address research questions related to bird migration, reproduction, and over-wintering. Research topics conducted at AFAR include how migratory flight is influenced by diet and environmental contaminants, the fluid dynamics of bird flight, spatial memory and navigation in birds, how birds detect and respond to predators, how birds respond to weather, how parasites and pathogens influence bird migration, and how environmental stressors affect reproduction and development. AFAR provides unique facilities, including the only wind-tunnel in the world designed for bird flight that can control air pressure, humidity and temperature (simulating altitudes up to 7 km). In addition, specialized aviaries and holding rooms allow studies of a variety of bird species in controlled conditions. AFAR also has cutting edge experimental and analytical technology including environmental chambers, acoustic chambers, behavioural observation arenas, labs for histology, hormone assays, and genetic analyses, magnetic resonance instruments for body composition analyses, instruments for measuring resting and peak metabolic rates, and a variety of software for analyses of movement and behaviour. AFAR is an intellectual hub and provides a unique training environment in which students and postdoctoral fellows from a variety of disciplines and institutions interact and collaborate on a daily basis. AFAR is also a research hub, providing the infrastructure to conduct experiments on-site and to analyze samples collected in the field or at other institutions. AFAR has been used by researchers from across Canada (BC, Ontario, Nova Scotia) as well as from institutions in the US (Rhode Island, Cornell, Massachusetts-Amherst). The infrastructure of AFAR under one roof provides a unique opportunity to conduct controlled experiments to address important fundamental and applied research questions based on observations of birds in the wild. The research outcomes from the facility will help us understand bird populations and how man-made challenges are affecting bird migration and survival.