Collaborative Research: MRA: Insectivore Response to Environmental Change

合作研究：MRA：食虫动物对环境变化的反应

• 批准号: 2017756
• 负责人: Daniel Sheldon
• 金额: $ 34.49万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-12-01 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2017756&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; MRA; Insectivore; Response

The lower atmosphere (i.e., aerosphere) is home to literally billions of organisms, including microbes, insects and birds. Species in the aerosphere often use other airborne organisms for food and are interdependent on one another. In recent decades, populations of many aerosphere organisms, such as birds and butterflies, have been rapidly declining in abundance. This project will examine the ecology of two bird and one bat species, all three of which feed on insects, and how their populations are responding in complicated ways to environmental change. These three species can also all be tracked when they emerge from their roosts by using state-of-the-art computer vision techniques with NEXRAD, the United States weather surveillance radar network. Project researchers will use the vast and ever-growing repository of data from the NEXRAD network to quantify the causes and consequences of ecological change in the aerial feeding and group habits of the two bird species (Purple Martins and Tree Swallows) and Mexican free-tailed Bats. The project will leverage environmental data from the NSF National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) together with the radar data to identify the drivers of changes in abundance, feeding, reproduction and other seasonal patterns. The massive data sets will be integrated with one another to develop predictions of how these three aerosphere species are changing at regional to continental scale, and in response to environmental changes. These studies will also incorporate training opportunities for a postdoctoral researcher and several graduate students and will include hosting an annual workshop on radar aeroecology for students and researchers (including members of underrepresented groups in science). Project investigators will work with a media team to produce a series of five video presentations on studying the ecology of birds, bats and insects in the aerosphere.This project has two objectives: (1) understand how global environmental change has impacted seasonal timing and population abundance of aerial insectivores over the past twenty-five years and (2) determine drivers of recent within and between seasonal variation in timing and abundance. Aerial insectivore populations have shown precipitous declines in the last half century — often at much steeper rates than other aerial taxa. Understanding mechanisms driving these changes would have broad implications for hundreds of species of birds, bats, and insects, and also serve as an indicator of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem health. However, the data sets needed to understand these mechanisms are currently lacking and urgently needed. While macroscale remote-sensing platforms for animals are rare, NEXRAD has emerged as a comprehensive source of information about flying animals, with large-scale and long-term (two decades) coverage. The investigators will employ an interdisciplinary approach integrating radar remote sensing, data from NEON, and computer modelling to fill this vital gap and to test questions about population change, phenology, and trophic interactions in response to anthropogenic drivers of macroscale environmental change. The PIs will focus their project on the widespread roosting behaviors of three aerial insectivore species as bellwethers for environmental change and ecosystem health: Purple Martin, Tree Swallow, and Mexican free-tailed Bat. This collaborative and interdisciplinary approach will yield large-scale, quantitative, and predictive insights into changing environments. They will also generate new workflows, methodologies, and insights for the use of NEON data for the study of global change. Through this proposal the investigators will generate the tools and web interface to automatically identify, locate, and disseminate information regarding U.S.-wide roosting phenomena. The status of aerial insectivores is a representation of the seasonal pulse of ecosystem health — the questions, infrastructural development, and outreach proposed will serve as for monitoring the status of aerial insectivores at the continental scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

较低的大气（即，大气层）是数十亿生物，包括微生物，绝缘和鸟类的家园。大声圈中的物种经常使用其他空气传播生物作为食物，并且相互依存。近几十年来，诸如鸟类和蝴蝶之类的许多大气生物的种群在抽象方面迅速下降。该项目将检查两只鸟和一种蝙蝠种的生态，这三种物种以绝缘为食，以及他们的种群如何以复杂的方式应对环境变化。通过使用Nexrad（美国天气监视雷达网络Nexrad）使用最先进的计算机视觉技术从屋顶出来时，这三种物种也可以全部跟踪。项目研究人员将使用Nexrad网络中广阔而不断增长的数据存储库来量化两种鸟类物种（紫色马丁斯和燕子）和墨西哥自由尾的蝙蝠的空中饲料和群体习惯的生态变化的原因和后果。该项目将利用NSF国家生态天文台网络（NEON）以及雷达数据的环境数据，以确定抽象，进食，繁殖和其他季节性模式变化的驱动因素。大规模的数据集将相互整合，以开发预测这三种大声层如何在区域尺度上变化，并响应环境变化。这些研究还将为博士后研究人员和几位研究生纳入培训机会，并将包括针对学生和研究人员（包括科学领域代表性不足的成员）举办的年度雷达航空生态学研讨会。项目调查人员将与一个媒体团队合作，制作一系列五个视频演示，以研究大声圈中的鸟类，蝙蝠和昆虫的生态。该项目有两个目标：（1）了解全球环境变化如何影响季节性的时间和空中昆虫动物的人口丰富，在过去的二十五年中，并且（2）确定了最近与季节性变量之间的最新驾驶员。在过去的半个世纪中，空中昆虫的种群显示出急剧下降 - 通常比其他空中分类单元要多得多。了解推动这些变化的机制将对数百种鸟类，蝙蝠和昆虫物种具有广泛的影响，并且还可以作为陆地和水生生态系统健康的指标。但是，目前缺乏并且急需了解这些机制所需的数据集。尽管宏观的动物遥感平台很少见，但Nexrad已成为有关飞行动物的全面信息来源，具有大规模和长期（二十年）的覆盖范围。研究人员将采用一种跨学科的方法，将RADIAR遥感，霓虹灯的数据和计算机建模整合起来，以填补这一重要差距，并测试有关人群变化，物候学和营养相互作用的问题，以响应宏观环境变化的人为驱动因素。 PI将把他们的项目集中在三种空中昆虫动物物种的宽度屋面行为上，作为环境变化和生态系统健康的铃铛：紫色马丁，树燕子和墨西哥自由尾蝙蝠。这种协作和跨学科的方法将对不断变化的环境产生大规模，定量和预测性见解。他们还将生成新的工作流，方法和见解，用于使用霓虹灯数据进行全球变化研究。通过此建议，调查人员将生成工具和Web界面，以自动识别，定位和传播有关美国范围内屋顶现象的信息。空中昆虫动物的状况是生态系统健康的季节性脉搏的代表 - 问题，基础设施发展和推广提议将作为监视连续规模上的空中昆虫动物的地位。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为通过基金会的知识绩效和广泛的影响，通过评估来获得评估，以评估是宝贵的。

项目成果

A weather surveillance radar view of Alaskan avian migration

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0232
• 发表时间: 2021-05
• 期刊: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
• 作者: Ashwin H. Sivakumar;D. Sheldon;Kevin Winner;Carolyn S. Burt;K. Horton

Long‐term analysis of persistence and size of swallow and martin roosts in the US Great Lakes

对美国五大湖燕子和马丁栖息地的持久性和规模的长期分析

• DOI: 10.1002/rse2.323
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
• 影响因子: 5.5
• 作者: Belotti, Maria Carolina T. D.;Deng, Yuting;Zhao, Wenlong;Simons, Victoria F.;Cheng, Zezhou;Perez, Gustavo;Tielens, Elske;Maji, Subhransu;Sheldon, Daniel;Kelly, Jeffrey F.
• 通讯作者: Kelly, Jeffrey F.

Drivers of fatal bird collisions in an urban center

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101666118
• 发表时间: 2021-06
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• 作者: Benjamin M. Van Doren;D. Willard;Mary Hennen;K. Horton;E. Stuber;D. Sheldon;Ashwin H. Sivakumar;Julia Wang;Andrew Farnsworth;Benjamin M. Winger