Physiological constraints during wintering and migration in snow buntings across a gradient of agriculture intensity

北美候鸟减少的一个被高度引用的原因是农业的增长，这是我们合作伙伴的一个重大关切。Terre-Eau公司是一家咨询公司，致力于促进有利于维护农田生物多样性的生态实践。应Terre-Eau的要求，该项目的一个主要目标是完善我们对农业强度和农药使用如何影响鸟类在迁徙和越冬期间的生理状态的理解。我们将使用雪彩旗（Plectrophenax nivalis）作为我们的模型，因为这个物种是常见的农业景观，特别是玉米地，在这两个严重不足和敏感的生活史阶段，因为它已经大大下降，近年来。针对这些阶段，我们的项目旨在（1）提供该模式物种的健康数据，（2）提高对物种迁移生理学的认识，以及（3）开发一种简单的技术来测量迁移过程中野外个体的育肥率。一个重要的目标也是（4）评估在冬季，在其东加拿大范围内，并在迁移期间沿着圣劳伦斯河，其中包括特雷欧的业务范围内的旗帜和相关的生理后果的农药污染水平。除了培养3名硕士，1名博士，1名博士后和几名理学学士外，这项研究还将为Terre-Eau带来新的技术专业知识和有关鸟类生理学的关键知识，这对玉米生产和农业实践具有重要意义。该项目处理对安大略、魁北克和加拿大具有经济和环境重要性的问题。据我们所知，这将是第一个研究，以询问是否下降的迁徙北极鸣禽受到作物农药在加拿大。此外，本提案中的研究成果将使人们对加拿大各地鸟类的越冬和迁徙生理学有更广泛的了解。这个项目很新颖，因为我们正在帮助一家环境咨询公司平衡农业的经济收益和可持续性。

One of the highly cited causes of migratory bird declines in North-America is growth in agriculture, which is a significant concern for our partner. Terre-Eau Inc. is a consulting firm promoting ecological practices that favor the maintenance of biodiversity in farmlands. At Terre-Eau's request, a major goal of this project is to refine our understanding of how agriculture intensity and pesticide use affect the physiological state of birds during migration and wintering. We will use the snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) as our model since this species is commonly found in agricultural landscapes, particularly corn fields, during these two critically understudied and sensitive life-history stages and because it has been declining considerably in recent years. Focusing on these stages, our project aims at (1) providing health data in this model species, (2) improving knowledge on the species migratory physiology and at (3) developing a simple technique to measure individual fattening rate in the field during migration. An important goal is also to (4) evaluate the level of pesticide contamination in buntings and the associated physiological consequences during winter, across its East-Canadian range, and during migration along the St-Lawrence, which encompasses Terre-Eau's range of operation. In addition to training 3 MSc, 1PhD, 1 Postdoc and several BSc, this research will bring new technical expertise for Terre-Eau and critical knowledge on avian physiology that will be of great importance for advising on corn production and farming practices. This project addresses issues that are of economic and environmental importance to Ontario, Québec and Canada. To our knowledge, this will be the first studies to ask whether a declining migratory arctic songbird is affected by crop pesticides in Canada. Furthermore, the sum of research to be achieved in this proposal will develop a wider understanding of wintering and migration physiology in birds throughout Canada. This project is novel, as we are helping an environmental consulting company balance the economic gains of agriculture with sustainability.