Wetland bird responses to anthropogenic habitat drivers in Atlantic Canada
Doctoral Research
Saltmarshes and coastal wetlands of Atlantic Canada have long been used by Indigenous peoples, mainly the Mi’kmaq, WÉ™lastÉ™kwewiyik (Maliseet), and Peskotomuhkati. In the 17th century, French settlers ("Acadians") arrived and began dyking and draining salt marshes using innovative technology brought over from Europe.​Today, much of the original saltmarsh and coastal wetland habitat has been altered or lost. For my doctoral research, I am investigating how wetland birds use human-created landscapes. I will do this through a literature review pulling together papers and documents examining bird use of human-made wetlands. I am interested in better understanding how birds use human-made impoundments, and, with collaborators at Ducks Unlimited Canada, we manipulated water levels in artificial wetlands ("impoundments") to monitor bird community response to drawdowns. Another piece of my research involves understanding local perceptions of change to wildlife and land of the Chignecto Isthmus through semi-directed interviews. Finally, I am investigating breeding site selection and movements of the Acadian Nelson's Sparrow, a "saltmarsh specialist" that also breeds in dykelands of the Canadian Maritimes. Monitoring of wetlands and wetland birds of Atlantic Canada is critically important in light of climate change, sea level rise, and continued habitat destruction, alteration, but also restoration.​This work is a collaborative venture with researchers at the University of New Brunswick, Acadia University, and Ducks Unlimited Canada. As part of my PhD research, I am involved with NSERC ResNet Landscape 1 - Bay of Fundy Dykeland Futures. Read more here.​I am grateful for the opportunity to conduct research on the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq. This research is made possible with support from Mitacs, Ducks Unlimited Canada, the New Brunswick Wildlife Trust Fund, the Nova Scotia Habitat Conservation Fund, Wildlife Habitat Canada, the Society of Canadian Ornithologists, the University of New Brunswick, and Acadia University. I'm also grateful to Ducks Unlimited Canada, Acadia University, and Irving Oil for the use of Beaubassin Research Station.
Bioacoustic monitoring of bird communities and behaviour in regenerating and fragmented tropical dry forests
Masters Research
For my Master thesis, I asked how birds respond to changes in their environment. The changes I focused on were forest restoration, fragmentation, and conspecific density (number of neighbours).​
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In my first data chapter, I recorded bird communities in different-aged forests of the Guanacaste Conservation Area. My goal was to understand how different birds use these forests as they grow back. The tropical dry forests of the Guanacaste Conservation Area have been subject to ambitious restoration efforts that have been ongoing for several decades. I found that bird communities become more abundant, diverse, and more similar to those in mature forests with increasing forest maturity. This work was published in the June 2020 issue of Avian Conservation and Ecolog; see my Publications page for more info.
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For my second data chapter, I shifted my focus to a single species, the Rufous-and-white Wren (Thryophilus rufalbus), to examine how female and male vocal behaviours are influenced by the number of neighbours it shares it's fragmented habitat with. This research was published in 2021 in Journal of Ornithology.
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My research took place in the Guanacaste Conservation Area in northwestern Costa Rica. This area represents a mosaic of forests in different stages of regeneration and is a compelling location to study how birds use these forests. This area also supports a healthy population of Rufous-and-white Wrens that live and breed in fragmentedmature forest patches within the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
I am grateful to the staff of the Guanacaste Conservation Area for their support of my research.