Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Understanding how life-history strategies affect fitness in migratory birds is a challenge given that individuals make decisions at numerous stages that are separated by large geographical distances and temporal spans. As such, while we have information about specific stages from various migratory species, we know little about how individuals within a species optimize strategies and trade-offs across multiple stages to maximize fitness. In particular, it is largely unknown how and why individual variation in wintering and migratory behaviour induces carry-over effects on reproductive success. Integrating information from all of these components is key to evaluating the relative direct and indirect effects of individual life-history strategies in shaping fitness in migratory species. We are examining some of these questions in snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis), a circumpolar Arctic-breeding passerine whose North American populations winter mainly in Southern Canada. We have been collecting baseline reproductive data on a Canadian population at East bay, Southampton Island, Nunavut since 2007. We will use a Geolocation-Tracking System to monitor individual variation in migratory, wintering and arrival behaviour. We will: 1) determine how variation in local climate at wintering habitats influences future reproductive success via carryover effects on body condition and reproductive timing, 2) identify whether variation in migration routes imposes temporal constraints that influence reproductive timing via changes in arrival times on the breeding grounds and 3) determine how breeding site selection influences the timing of migration and arrival. This project represents the first known attempt to follow the behaviour of individual passerines across all life-history stages. Research will provide unique insight into how individuals in this species manage spatial and temporal constraints as they move across and interact with their landscape. Furthermore, research will provide key information on how migratory species in general optimize stage-specific strategies to maximize fitness.