Avian Reproduction Dynamics and Ecomorphology in Boreal Ecosystems

加拿大的北方森林因其作为数十亿只鸣禽的主要繁殖地而闻名。然而，我们对这个巨大生态系统中鸟类繁殖的基本情况知之甚少，更不用说鸟类繁殖动态背后的机制了，主要是因为很难获得广泛区域和整个物种群落的可靠适合度数据。近年来，我的发现基金专注于北方和温带森林的栖息地选择过程。我的实验室已经通过实验证明，森林碎片化确实限制了鸣禽的活动，以至于在经历了一个世纪的森林景观变化后，成为一种进化力量，改变了森林鸟类的翅膀形态。这表明，森林格局的变化直接影响到与鸣禽栖息地选择相关的权衡(健康成本/收益)。然而，栖息地片断化、栖息地选择以及人口和进化反应之间的联系仍然鲜为人知。我的下一个发现基金将致力于寻找这样的联系，通过一系列专注于鸣禽健康成分和栖息地选择的形态相关性的项目。 为了获得可靠的适合度估计，我的实验室最近开发了一种基于对父母活动的观察和最先进的统计工具的抽样方法，以获得对大片地区和整个鸣禽群落的鸟类繁殖成功(即饲养一窝幼鸟的概率)的公正和可靠的估计。这种新的方法打开了一系列丰富的新研究途径的大门，并将使我的实验室能够解决以下研究目标：1)找到北方鸣禽筑巢成功的热点，2)寻找这些热点的景观相关性，3)通过寻找鸟类形态分布的景观和区域尺度模式，将我最近关于鸟类翅膀形态进化变化的工作提升到一个新的水平，以努力了解由于栖息地碎片化的迁移成本而导致的翅膀形状和栖息地选择之间的关系。 这些项目从逻辑上遵循了我之前对栖息地选择行为机制的DG研究。他们将延续我的实验室的传统，即通过对栖息地选择的机械性理解来解决鸟类保护问题。我所有的DG研究都将在我的大学的北方实验森林(Forèt Montmorency，47.1 N，71.1 W)进行，以前是67平方公里，现在覆盖了413平方公里和广泛的景观结构。考虑到这种生物群对森林管理的重要性，以及加拿大北方森林长期行为研究的相对匮乏，它将具有成本效益和附加值。

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.