LTREB RENEWAL: Predicting the Responses of Swallows and Their Insect Prey to Climate Change

本项目研究气候变化对繁殖树燕及其飞行昆虫猎物的影响。它将实地和实验室研究与新的尖端技术相结合，以实现四个主要目标。首先是了解观察到的产卵日期变化的生物学基础。其次，研究人员将改进和部署一个新的传感器节点网络，以测试巢温变化对父母照顾和小鸡发育的影响。第三，将启动新的合作，以记录个别燕子飞行和觅食有关不断变化的天气条件。最后，对昆虫出现的地方变化和对天气的敏感性的详细研究将把食物供应的变化与鸟类动态的变化联系起来。这些目标将完成十年研究计划的最后五年，以全面了解鸟类个体和鸟类种群对气候变化的反应。这项研究有助于探索全球气候的严重性和变化如何影响鸟类的繁殖生物学，长期数据正在推动加拿大东部和美国北方的合作，寻找包括树燕在内的空中食虫动物数量下降的原因。这项研究继续为一个由各级学生组成的国际小组提供培训，并通过泛美Golondrinas de las Americas网络为大规模比较研究提供创意。结果通过康奈尔鸟类学实验室的许多网点传达给尽可能广泛的受众。

This project studies the effects of weather variation on breeding Tree Swallows and their flying insect prey. It combines field and laboratory research with new and sophisticated technology to pursue four main objectives. The first is to understand the biological basis for observed variation in egg laying date. Second, the researchers will refine and deploy a new sensor-node network to test the effects of altered nest temperatures on parental care and the development of chicks. Third, new collaborations will be initiated to document individual swallow flight and foraging in relation to changing weather conditions. Finally, detailed studies of local variation in insect emergence and sensitivity to weather will link changes in food availability with changes in bird dynamics. These objectives will complete the final five years of a ten-year research plan to reach a comprehensive understanding of how individual birds and bird populations respond to climate variation.This research helps explore how changes in the severity and variation of global climates are affecting the breeding biology of birds, and the long-term data are fueling a collaboration in eastern Canada and the northern US searching for the causes of population declines in aerial insectivores, including tree swallows. This study continues to provide training for an international team of students of all levels, and it serves as idea-generator for large-scale comparative studies through the pan-American Golondrinas de las Americas network. Results are communicated to the broadest possible audience through the many outlets of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.