Physiological response mechanisms underlying breeding phenology, breeding performance, and foraging activity of Canadian seabirds.

对于候鸟而言，传递效应是个体在年周期的非繁殖期所经历的经验，它可以极大地影响繁殖决策、繁殖时间和未来繁殖概率等生活史特征。但为了更全面地了解这些过程，需要电子跟踪（即遥测）和生理采样技术，以确定迁移经验如何在生理上与最密切相关的健康特征联系起来。虽然目前有许多研究人员正在研究鸟类的携带效应，但很少有人研究驱动行为，时机和成功变化的潜在生理机制，特别是在繁殖性能方面。此外，因为人们越来越认识到，对鸟类终身健康贡献最大的性状与雌性何时繁殖的决定以及她在繁殖方面的投资程度有关，我在这里提出的工作将集中在雌性的角度，并记录个体生理变化周围的健康相关性状。这个为期5年的探索研究计划的长期目标将使用多个海鸟模型系统来实现这一目标，以获得数据，这些数据将建立鸟类迁徙行为、携带效应和繁殖成本的生理和环境因素。海鸟是这项工作的优秀典范，因为它们每年都会决定是否繁殖，因此环境条件起着重要作用。它们对特定的筑巢地点也非常敏感，因此在整个年度周期中重新捕获个体进行研究的可能性非常高。这些特征使它们成为生活史变化的生理学研究和遥测设备恢复的优秀模型，但这项工作的结果将更广泛地告知我们对鸟类生活史变化的认识。此外，这项工作还将提供关于利奇风暴海燕的运动生态和生存的重要信息，利奇风暴海燕是加拿大东部繁殖的重要哨兵海鸟物种，对海洋气候变化敏感，但即将被加拿大濒危野生动物状况委员会列为濒危物种。该研究计划将以达尔豪西大学为基础，并将聘请加拿大其他几所大学和政府机构的研究人员，并将直接支持至少三名研究生和几名本科生研究人员的培训，从而有助于培养高素质的人才。一个长期的目标是理解（并希望预测！）候鸟对气候变化的反应

To migratory birds, carryover effects are the experiences that individuals have during the non-breeding period of their annual cycle, which can greatly influence life-history traits like breeding decision, the timing of breeding, and future breeding probability. But in order to understand these processes more fully, electronic tracking (i.e. telemetry) and physiological sampling techniques are both needed in order to define how migration experiences link physiologically to the traits most closely linked to fitness. Although there are many researchers who are currently studying carryover effects in birds, very few are examining the underlying physiological mechanisms that drive variation in behaviour, timing, and success, especially with respect to breeding performance. Also, because it is becoming increasingly recognized that the traits contributing most to lifetime fitness in birds are related to a female's decision about when to breed, and the extent to which she invests in reproduction, the work that I am proposing here will focus on the female perspective and document individual physiological variation surrounding fitness-related traits. The long-term objective of this 5-year Discovery research program will do this using multiple seabird model systems, to obtain data that will establish the physiological and environmental factors underlying avian migration behaviour, carry-over effects, and costs of reproduction. Seabirds are excellent models for this work, as they make decisions each year about whether to breed, and so environmental conditions play an important role. They are also highly fidelitous to specific nesting locations, and so the probability of recapturing individuals for studies across the annual cycle is very high. These traits make them excellent models for physiological studies of life history variation, and for telemetry device recovery But the results of this work will inform our knowledge of life-history variation in birds more broadly. Additionally, this work will also provide important information about the movement ecology and survival of Leach's storm petrels, an important sentinel seabird species breeding in eastern Canada and which is sensitive to variation in ocean climate, but which is about to be listed as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. This research program will be based at Dalhousie University, and will engage researchers at several other Canadian universities and government agencies, and will directly support the training and of at least three graduate students, and several undergraduate researchers, thus contributing to the training of highly qualified personnel. A long-term goal is to understand (and hopefully predict!) the responses of migratory birds to climate change.