Spatial and temporal variation in the response of migratory species to anthropogenic land use

由于栖息地丧失、气候变化、迁徙障碍和过度狩猎等一系列威胁，全球迁徙物种正在减少。在这些威胁中，对迁徙物种和整个生物多样性来说最严重的威胁之一是农业的扩张和集约化。迁徙物种将在不同的地理区域和不同的生命阶段(例如繁育和非繁育)经历AEI的影响。因此，他们在年度周期的一个阶段如何反应并不一定预测他们在另一个阶段将如何反应。尽管如此，几乎所有关于这一主题的研究都采取了静态的方法，专注于一年中的特定时间和地点。如果我们要减轻AEI对迁徙物种的影响，我们需要一种更动态的方法来理解AEI的敏感性如何以及为什么会在空间和时间上变化，以及这些反应如何影响物种和群落的保护状态。我的长期研究目标是研究物种和群落在年度周期中如何对人为土地利用和气候变化做出反应，以及这些反应对保护的影响。我和我的学生们将在这份提案中探讨的短期目标主要集中在两个主要目标上。首先，迁徙物种对农业土地利用的敏感度在空间和时间上是如何变化的，在年度周期的特定阶段的敏感度与物种衰退之间有什么关系？第二，迁徙物种对农业土地利用反应最强烈的空间尺度是否在一年周期的繁殖期和非繁殖期之间有所不同？在这项研究中，我将培养1PhD、3MSc和4BSc优等生。在人为土地利用强度不断增加的情况下，保护迁徙物种需要我们全面了解它们在年度周期的不同阶段如何应对这一威胁。我和我的学生将在这项提议中进行的研究将采取一种新颖和动态的方法来应对这一挑战，方法是结合使用公民科学数据来确定宏观生态规模的模式的研究，以及在加拿大的迁徙物种繁殖地和哥伦比亚的非繁殖地采用重复方法的详细实地研究。这些研究的综合信息将有助于保护从业者确定地理保护的优先事项，并针对年度周期中影响最大的阶段，恢复不断下降的候鸟数量。

Migratory species are declining globally due to a range of threats including habitat loss, climate change, barriers to migration and overhunting. Among these threats, one of the most serious for migratory species, and biodiversity in general, is the expansion and intensification of agriculture (AEI). Migratory species will experience the effects of AEI in different geographic regions and during different life stages (e.g. breeding vs non-breeding). Therefore, how they respond in one period of the annual cycle does not necessarily predict how they will respond in another. Despite this, nearly all research on this topic has taken a static approach with a focus on a particular time of year and location. If we are to mitigate the impacts of AEI on migratory species we need a more dynamic approach to understand how and why sensitivity to AEI varies across space and time, and how these responses influence the conservation status of species and communities. My long-term research goals are to study how species and communities respond to anthropogenic land-use and climate variability across the annual cycle and the implications of these responses for conservation. The short-term goals that my students and I will explore in this proposal focus on two main objectives. First, how does sensitivity to agricultural land-use vary for migratory species across space and time, and what is the relationship between sensitivity at particular stages of the annual cycle and species declines? Second, does the spatial scale at which migratory species respond most strongly to agricultural land-use vary between the breeding and non-breeding periods of the annual cycle? In conducting this research, I will train 1PhD, 3MSc and 4BSc honours students. Amidst the rising intensity of anthropogenic land use, the conservation of migratory species requires that we have a comprehensive understanding of how they respond to this threat at different stages of the annual cycle. The research that my students and I will conduct in this proposal will take a novel and dynamic approach to this challenge through a combination of studies that use citizen science data to identify patterns at macroecological scales and detailed field-based studies with a replicated approach on the breeding grounds of migratory species in Canada and on their non-breeding grounds in Colombia. The combined information from these studies will help conservation practitioners to establish geographical conservation priorities and target the most impactful stage of the annual cycle for the recovery of declining migratory bird populations.