Habitat connectivity: terrestrial and marine hotspots for seabirds, chemical biotransport, and the role of seabirds in coastal ecosystems

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In Arctic and Atlantic Canada, coastal regions perform important ecological functions and provide critical wildlife habitat, but they are subject to increasing and novel anthropogenic stressors such as development, contamination, marine traffic, and climate change. A key question for scientists, managers and politicians is “how can we predict the effects of anthropogenic stressors on coastal wildlife populations and their habitats in these areas when so few data are available on their ecology and habitat needs?” My research program will build on my lab’s experience and success in remote field work to test the overall hypothesis that key coastal and marine habitats for migratory birds are predictable, and are connected through bird behaviour and ecology, which ultimately leads to chemical connectivity across different spatial scales. Specifically, during the next 5 years, my lab will: (1) identify spatio-temporal variability of important coastal and marine wildlife habitats in Arctic and Atlantic Canada through the use of colony-based ecological research, telemetry devices and paleoenvironmental approaches; and (2) examine migratory birds as biovectors of contaminants to terrestrial environments from marine foraging areas through ecosystem-wide chemical analyses.