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

北美候鸟数量减少的一个重要原因是农业的增长，这是我们的合作伙伴非常关心的问题。Terre-Eau Inc.是一家促进有利于维护农田生物多样性的生态实践的咨询公司。应Terre-Eau的要求，该项目的一个主要目标是加深我们对农业强度和杀虫剂使用如何影响鸟类在迁徙和越冬期间的生理状态的理解。我们将使用雪雀(Plectrohenax Nivalis)作为我们的模型，因为在这两个严重未被研究和敏感的生活史阶段，这种物种通常出现在农业景观中，特别是玉米地，而且近年来它的数量一直在大幅下降。围绕这些阶段，我们的项目旨在(1)提供该模式物种的健康数据，(2)提高对物种迁徙生理的认识，(3)开发一种简单的技术来测量迁徙过程中的个体肥胖率。一个重要的目标也是(4)评估冬季、整个东加拿大范围内以及沿圣劳伦斯河(包括Terre-Eau的作业范围)迁徙期间，羽毛虫中的农药污染水平和相关的生理后果。除了培训3名硕士、1名博士、1名博士后和几名理科学士，这项研究还将为Terre-Eau带来新的技术专长和鸟类生理学方面的关键知识，这将对玉米生产和耕作实践提供非常重要的建议。该项目解决了对安大略省、魁北克省和加拿大具有经济和环境重要性的问题。据我们所知，这将是第一次研究加拿大正在减少的迁徙的北极鸣鸟是否受到作物杀虫剂的影响。此外，这项提案将实现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效益和可持续性。

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.