Avian Reproduction Dynamics and Ecomorphology in Boreal Ecosystems

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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.