Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

My proposal focuses on ecology and behaviour of seabirds, with four major elements: 1) an expanded study of seabird movement and migration in relation to individual characteristics and ocean climate (the 'flagship project'); 2) continued study of behavioural ecology of auklet feather odor, ectoparasites and sexual selection, to clarify the relative importance of odor as a sexually selected trait versus a naturally selected parasite repellant, with expanded field experiments and comparative analysis of all Alcidae; 3) continuing work on climate forcing of demography with an extension to palaeoecology to place present patterns in the perspective of long term population variability; and 4) Aleutian seabird conservation biology with an emphasis on introduced predators, prospecting behaviour, colony formation and island restoration. Our research will make advances in neglected areas in movement and dispersal study, especially for smaller auks, that are the numerically dominant seabirds of the Bering Sea region. It is a paradox of seabird biology that most studies have focused on their activities on land (research at breeding sites) rather than at sea. It is no exaggeration to state that quantitative information about birds' activity at sea outside the breeding season has been a 'holy grail' of seabird biology, because this is so fundamental to understanding these birds' ecology. Apart from closing the gap on a poorly known area of seabird ecology, our work on migration and dispersal will provide a unique insight into patterns of North Pacific ocean productivity and oceanography, and provide assistance to the restoration of damaged islands, one of the world's most threatened ecosystems. Our work on sexual selection, plumage odor and ectoparasites, follows up in a controversial subject area with competing hypotheses for the function of chemical emissions in birds feathers. Our research on auk demography along with the palaeoecological component in Alaska will be at the forefront of work on climate change effects on northern marine ecosystems. Our conservation biology focussed component addresses many questions relating to island conservation and the mitigation of human impacts and restoration of damaged remote islands.